I'm Your Venus
by the Under-Cover Fangirl
Summary: Aglaia's father loses her job to the Kaiba Corp industry and her family is forced to move to Domino City, at just about the same time as the goddess Aphrodite is resurrected. Tokyo fashion, street gangs, and post-Egypt tension. Seto/OC. HIATUS
1. Foreword

* * *

_**Not Quite Shakespeare. . .**

* * *

_

Two women, unalike in dignity,

On walk of dreamers, where we lay our scene,

That ancient love breaks to new comedy,

Where untold plight makes ordinary girls obscene.

From forth the eternal bounds of these incarnates

A pair of hopeless lovers take their life;

Whose forlorn attempts to escape their fates

Just prove to worsen their desperate strife.

The infinite confusion of their pre-written love

And the involvement of their worldly stage

Does best to fight and then remove

The love foretold on this page;

The which if you with patient eyes attend,

What Fates did miss, this Mistress strives to mend.

* * *

_**Now read, dear patrons, as KittyLo tries**_

_**To convey this anomaly of hers.**_

_That, which cold Seto thoroughly defies,_

_In the least is a black sheep to the herds._

* * *

_[. . . don't own it.]_


	2. Prologue

* * *

**? ? ?**

* * *

"**Stupid**." She snarled. "**Ignorant**." She spat. "**Harridan**! If my hair does burn and eyes do boil finding that wicked hellcat then I will still never stop in my search of her!"

A painfully lonely saga accompanied the immortal life of the goddess Aphrodite.

Aphrodite was a goddess that exceeded every other being, mortal or otherwise, in beauty and charm, so alluring that any mortal man would fall for her at her sight.

Given, she had irrevocable beauty, but what gave her her most goddess like quality were her eyes, which were colored half and half. They were half hazel towards the bottom right, of a golden brown shade, and could look upon a man and fill him with powerful and uncontrollable lust. The other half at the top left, of an elegant violet, would fill a man with the indomitable drive to fulfill her every will.

With her fantastic eyes and a prepossessing smile of her thick lips, she easily convinced the attendant of the River Styx to ferry her across; however, the smile was fictitious as she was anything but pleased.

Her husband, the abominable and dour Hephaestus, an astoundingly ugly god, and her two lovers that she had turned to for companionship in her loveless marriage, Adonis and Ares, truly meant nothing to her.

There was one man she loved, despite his weak mortality.

Seth, the Egyptian Pharaoh's highest priest, had captured her heart in a method that she had used to bind so many mortals: love.

When Zeus advised the Greek kings, of all the islands of Greece, to ally themselves with the growing powers of Egypt, connections of trade were immediately formed. Their cultures combined and their peoples mixed.

That was how Aphrodite met Seth.

He was honoring the Greeks that were coming to visit Egypt in a celebratory parade, as the Pharaoh commanded him. Aphrodite knew that such a great communion of humans would result in love, hopeless or otherwise, but she never expected that love would be her own.

It was ironic that a human could enamor her, though she was the one who held power over all mortals' love. It could have been because he was the only one who seemed resistant to her magnetism.

It was strange, too, that even the Fates could not predict her falling for a mortal man.

But that was of no relevance now, now that he was gone. She hadn't been there while the Thief Lord was attacking and a demon ended up consuming her Seth, her dearest Seth. . .

So now, Hades had him. But it wasn't Hades that she was worried about.

No, it was Persephone; Persephone had fought her for companionship with Adonis, for when Adonis went down to the Underworld, Persephone, Hades' wife and the goddess of vegetation and growth, tried to keep him.

Because of Seth's infatuating spell over, Aphrodite no longer had eyes for that lover of hers. Now she only wanted Seth, but Persephone could hold a grudge.

"Persephone," the goddess called once into the Underworld's depths. "I want you to tell me where my Seth has gone."

"What is that you speak of, Aphrodite? I do not know what you wish of me." The blonde beauty responded with an innocent face. They embittered loneliness had not left her eyes.

"Tell me where he is, you ugly wench! What have you done with the Egyptian Priest Seth!?"

"Oh, is that little mortal the one of which you speak? The Pharaoh's priest, you've come for him?"

"Yes. Tell me where he is."

"It seems that the judges disapproved of his life actions. His soul is on the ferry to Tartarus." Persephone gave the information as though it were simple, trivial banter.

"**What**?!?" Aphrodite hissed and her eyes darkened. The edges of Persephone's lips curved in maliciously and her eyes narrowed. Stealing away Adonis, taking him from her when there was nothing else to comfort her, and then going for another man?! The harpy deserved to pay for her wicked deeds, and through Seth, she would.

For those who aren't fervently interested in mythology, Tartarus is the equivalent of Hell. Many terrible things were said about it on Olympus, the Greek god's home.

Some swore to have seen fires engulf all those approaching it, that it is a place of eternal fire. Some said that it was a place of ever lasting loneliness, where nothing but silence exists. All that was certain was that when one entered the torturous hearth they never left.

Ever.

In a flare of anger, Aphrodite flailed her arms at Persephone and sent her flying backward. To protect their queen, undead demons arose from the ground and charged the love goddess, but she had turned to run.

It took what seemed like years of running about a labyrinth to find the River Cocytus, the river leading to Tartarus. But it was too late: the ferry had already taken off in the flaming water, filled with intertwining souls of the damned.

Aphrodite saw Seth and he turned to see her.

With all substantial theatricalism, Seth called out to Aphrodite.

She called back to him and tears came from her eyes.

Now she understood. She finally, truly understood the love she thought she had control over for so long. She hated herself for not fixing every pair of lovers to perfect happiness.

In her desperation, Aphrodite had flung herself into the acidic river. She frantically swam through the grabbing spirits. The deathly liquid scalded her skin and charred her hair but she paid no mind.

There was only one thing she cared about and she was about to lose him forever.

Aphrodite came up to the side of the gondola that was being rowed by a skeleton and reached for Seth. He took her in his arms and she wept into his chest, from the fear for his soul and the burning of her skin.

"There isn't much time," he told her. "But here." Seth held out a golden ring with an Egyptian inscription on it and a grasp for a gemstone, but no gem.

"But Seth," Aphrodite swallowed down a sob. "We cannot marry here."

"No, not here. But someday, I swear it." He slid the band onto her ring finger. "Make a pact with me."

She solemnly nodded.

"Someday we will be together again. I have blessed this ring so that our souls may be connected. I promise, someday."

They kissed each other for the last time in that life.

In five million years they would meet again.

But that life wouldn't be so great, either.


	3. Maybe

* * *

**Domino City, Japan**

**East Side City District**

**Domino City Park**

**February 1st**

**2:30 P.M.**

* * *

Once upon a sunny winter day in the Domino City Park(as Groundhog Day was but 24 hours ahead), children played frisbee and young and loving couples strolled in wait of the soon-to-arrive Valentine's Day.

This warmly scene, however, was disturbed by a seemingly mystical dark aura, as though a black hole swirled at the center of it, sucking away the blissful energy.

A certain CEO click-clacked away at his Kaiba Corp laptop, of a design that would make Steve Jobs of Apple Incorporated redden with jealousy.

Seto Kaiba, making an effort to get as much computer work as he could done, fidgeted with annoyance at the unsubtle sexual advances of the couple on the park bench across from his.

The only reason he went to the reality-forsaken park in the first place was because Mokuba had well-- simply asked.

It honestly perplexed all of his staff. How could the unmoving, gelid wall of icy business that was Seto Kaiba be convinced by a young boy like Mokuba?

It showed that there were still miracles, that maybe the man of wintry insensitivity had humanity in him yet.

But when one especially stupid employee decided on this that he might inquire in front of his boss the ever-never-to-be-said taboo (PAY RAISE), he was proven wrong and promptly fired.

It was to ever remain a mystery what made Seto Kaiba tick.

However, what did tick him off were the increasingly nettlesome couple, a kiss-y woman and a feel-y man, still on the bench across from his, not deterring in the slightest.

Fed up from nauseating reek of romance, he fluidly slammed his computer shut and walked indignantly towards the street, texting an order on his Kaiba Corp beeper for the driver to be there in no less than one minute.

Mokuba, seeing that his brother was vexed, immediately made way to follow him, dropping a goodbye behind him and running away from the four other boys that had wanted to see his special gaming handheld.

"What's the matter, big brother?"

"We're leaving, Mokuba," was his answer.

Knowing not to argue, Mokuba nodded his head and looked sadly to the ground. He knew something like this would happen.

Not exactly miraculous.

But there are to be miracles yet.

* * *

**Tokyo, Japan**

**Shinjuku Gyoen Suburban District**

**478 Bokuyo Street Residential Home**

**January 28th**

**5:30 P.M.**

* * *

It was the hardest thing in the world for Hiroto to see his wife cry.

Pushing his glasses up him nose, he cleared his throat and prepared to explain to his son and daughter at the dinner table as to why their mother was weeping.

"Kenichi," he looked to his prankster son. All the boy wanted to do was eat, but unsuspectingly he stumbled upon his mother, Kalliope, crying in the kitchen.

"Aglaia," he gazed sadly on his quiet young girl. She was but a few months younger than her brother but ages more innocent than he at heart.

"WE'RE MOVI-I-I-ING!!!" Kalliope burst out in hysterics and interrupted her husband. However, with dark Greek skin and lovely features, her boisterous over-emotionality was easy to overlook.

"Honey--" Trying vainly to comfort his wife who had long since grown accustomed to their Tokyo city life, he had handed her a paper towel from the sink that she proceeded to stain with tears, snot, and mascara.

"Wait, what?! How can you suddenly do this to us?! Don't we get a say!?" Kenichi was obviously very pissed, as he had a good thing going with the Shinjuku district Duel Monsters Trading Circuit.

He was a collector of the cards, and his parents were happy that he had any hobby besides vandalism, water balloons, and cherry bombs.

Kalliope, bawling her eyeliner out, was patted on the back by Aglaia, her square-spectacled daughter.

Not being one to withhold emotions, Kalliope leapt with a fierce hug onto her daughter, staining her blue and white school uniform.

"I have no choice." In a nervous habit of his, Hiroto took his glasses and cleaned them with his shirt.

"I'm not happy about it either, but the Kaiba Corporation has-- well-- bought Atsuko Gaming out of business."

Both Kenichi and Aglaia gasped in shock and Kalliope spewed out more tears and sobs.

They all knew how important and emotional the family gaming business had always been as it was four generations old.

Only a few shops, each run by Hiroto's brothers, were open throughout Tokyo.

The shops themselves were symbolic of a family's struggles to attain their aspirations and were mementos of Hiroto's childhood.

Now they were empty lots for rent, and all of their labor and merchandise belonged to the faceless trademark of the Kaiba Corporation.

"On Monday I'll be taking up work at Kaiba Corp."

"But Daddy, so soon? It's Wednesday, that's less than a week to move all the way too-- wait, where?"

"Domino City."

At the sound of this, Kenichi immediately halted his I-don't-wanna-move thought process.

"Domino City." Kenichi echoed. "Domino frickin' City." His family stared at him. "Duel Monsters capital of the world! YES!"

"Well," Kalliope wiped her eyes and Aglaia looked unnervingly down at her blackened school uniform. "I'm glad someone's happy about moving."

"Come on, this could be an adventure. We'll have fun." The three knew that Hiroto would hardly have any fun, working in an office cubicle in a tall sky scraper. It was the opposite of his ideal job, but he wanted his family to be happy.

"Yea, so cheer up!" Kalliope shook her daughter's arm lovingly, though she was the one most upset. "It'll be fun!"

"So when do we pack?!" Kenichi was fully on board with moving idea. He smiled and his mother and father jumped on the denial band wagon with him.

"Tonight, if you want to," Hiroto smiled back at his son.

"Let's go! I've been meaning to go through the closet. I'll call ahead and get us a good flight for Friday, so that should give us plenty of time to settle in over the weekend. . . and I'm sure that there are plenty of apartments we could move into for the time being. . ."

Aglaia was the only one unconvinced as her family left her alone in the kitchen.

Hopping on the kitchen island stool, she set down her frumpy messenger bag and stared off into the distance.

Though she desperately wanted something prettier, anything else would attract attention.

Gazing longingly at the refrigerator, Aglaia wanted desperately to go get something to eat, but rubbing her hands over her gut, she decided against it.

Another louder grumble of the stomach and she gave into her hunger.

Getting up and going to the fridge door, Aglaia saw her reflection in the shiny black plastic.

She immediately slammed open the door not to see it.

With the poor mentality that she had so ingrained into herself, she burnt with self consciousness that couldn't be redeemed, no matter how many times her parents reassured her.

Taking out a package of sushi, Aglaia recalled her childhood of pulled pig-tails and stolen lunches. She was always teased.

Her mother said that she needed to be more confident and the other kids would come around but Aglaia never believed it.

And it all started with her eyes.

Goodness knows how it came to be about, but her eyes were a freakish half honey to the bottom left and half violet to the top right. The other children noticed it on the first day of preschool and she never saw the end of it.

Of course, it didn't help that her breasts came in after everyone else's. Or that her glasses were like hunks of rock.

The more she got beat down, the easier she was to beat down. With the zero confidence that she had it would be impossible to ever recover.

But miracles happen, don't they?

No one seems to believe that nowadays.

A long silence of chewy self loathing passed as Aglaia shuffled through her memories and scarcely found any that didn't make her feel more awkward.

"Aglaiaaaaa!!!!" Glad to be interrupted from her thoughts, Aglaia hauled her thick legs up the stairs and into her mother's room, where photographs, stray papers, and cardboard boxes already were already strewn over the floor.

"I have a special gift for you." Aglaia assumed it to be some other cute article of fashion that she would be too shy to wear and sighed with a resigned smile. She was lucky to have such a great mother but sometimes Kalliope could be more of a predictable teenage ditz than Aglaia was.

"TAA-DAH!!!" Confused, Aglaia studied the wooden box that was held out in front of her. It was small and obviously meant to hold some sort of jewelry. Of course.

"Mom, thank you so much, but you didn't have to--"

"No, dear, I didn't buy it."

Confused eyebrow raise.

"See, this belonged to me before I got married to your father." Kalliope sat down on the bed and Aglaia followed. "My mother wore it, too, and so did her mother. And her mother, and her mother, and her mother, about as far as our family goes back."

Aglaia was going to ask as to how this was plausible, to always have a daughter to hand it down to, but then she remembered that she was Greek.

"Oh." She stared at the crumbled, golden thing. It had a clasp for a gem but no gem to be found, rust covering all sides, and some strange inscriptions around the rims.

"Oh? Come on, honey," she playfully shoved her daughter's arm. "You gotta give me more than that!"

Blushing, Aglaia took it into her fingers and felt the indented wordings. "Wh-What do these words mean?"

"I don't know. It's Ancient Greek or something. All your grandmother told me was that it meant eternal love for the wearer."

"Thank you. . ." Aglaia smiled at her mother's childish smile and even more childish clapping.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh, AND guess what I've got for you?!" Excitedly, Kalliope pulled three glossily bound magazine from her bedroom desk drawer. "Your subscriptions came in!!!"

"Gimme!!!" As though some other spirit jumped out from her body and left her shy self to sit, Aglaia leapt for the glorious fashion mags that her mother held in her hands.

Swinging around the magazines into her chest, Aglaia ran into her room, past the Reiko Nakane poster, and slammed the door into her den of solitude.

The only mirror, a full length one on the door, was completely covered in a collage of runway photos, cut out advertisements, photo shoot clippings, and self-drawn sketches of compatibly stylish outfits.

It was a glorious thing: frumpy and unstylish in the eyes of the world, Aglaia was able to submerge herself in a world where silks and stilettos made all things fabulous.

Pulling together the things of fashion into artistically phenomenal outfits came naturally to Aglaia as pairing the colors of the rainbow came to children.

Though it would take a miracle of courage to actually wear the things she sketched.

Seeing fashion displays through windows as a child made Aglaia feel giddy. She took care to stay up late to watch every fashion show, to subscribe to every style magazine, to research every prominent designer.

Fashion was her soul, but the especially pretty designs that she took care to sew into reality were doomed to remain the play ground for dust bunnies in her closet forever.

Submerging herself into the sheen sheets of Popteen magazine, Aglaia forgot that she was a graceless, awkward, insignificant speck on the teenage plain of existence.

Here was a place she felt she belonged, a cave where she hid from the world.

Not unlike her eternal counterpart, the one set in brazen gold and held by a higher power, of you think about it, but that's a story for another day.

* * *

**KITTYLO'S KORNER~**

**If that last part didn't make any sense to you, you didn't read the first chapter and therefore fail.**

**After various reconstructions, and many regrettable posts, I'm Your Venus is finally published in all of it's correct glory!**

**Help me suck less with your constructive criticism, please?**


	4. Up

* * *

**Somewhere Over Japan**

**SkyMark Airlines**

**Flight 1894-208 (nonstop flight to Domino City)**

**Friday, January 30th**

**4:34 A.M.**

* * *

_**Men In Style Section**_

_**February's Man of the Month:**_

_**Seto Kaiba, CEO of the Kaiba Gaming Corporation**_

Aglaia scanned the picture of the Kaiba Corp CEO, noting that the stylish trench coat was built on giant shoulders pads. Very fresh.

She read on.

_**Though we couldn't get an interview with this business warrior, the card**_ _**gaming veteran brings new meaning to geek chic. A shark in the office room,**_ _**Seto Kaiba beat out Schroeder Corp's Zigfried von Shroeder for this month's**_ _**title because of his company's recent success in America.**_ _**The Kaibaland America(trademark) grand opening is to be on the 5th of**_ _**February and is already sold out full for the next three months.**_

This was her first time seeing this man, and it dawned upon her that Kaiba Corp was the company that bought out her father's and this man, Seto Kaiba, had essentially ruined her life as she knew it.

As payback, she turned the page.

Showed him.

Looking out the window, the rising sun illuminated a flock of sparrows in the distance.

Aside from the sounds computer clicking, snoring, and wind breaking around the plane, Aglaia was alone with herself and the rows of other people on the charter flight.

Somehow she got stuck off somewhere on her own, with her mother, brother, and father scattered elsewhere.

A girly yawn came from behind her, and bored with only herself, Aglaia listened in to what went on behind her.

"Oi, Aika, are you awake?"

" . . . "

"Aika?"

"Aika, wake up will you!"

"gah. . . don't wake me up, Kokoro. Dang . . . I was having this ah-MAZING

dream. . ."

"About what?"

"Do you even have to ask?"

"Of course, it's Zigfried-sama!"

"Duh! He's SO gorgeous. I'd play card games with that guy any day. . ."

"I can't believe he lost to that boring Kaiba-guy for man of the month."

"Yeah, those jokers up in Popteen don't know what they're doing."

Aglaia reopened her magazine and looked again at Kaiba. Strange how those things arrange themselves.

"Hey, girl."

Aglaia jumped in her seat, because she realized that they were talking to her.

"Y---Yes?"

"Let me see that. That's this month's Popteen, right?"

"W---Wait--" Aglaia's magazine was ripped from her hands before she could object.

"I just wanna see it for a second." The two girls flipped through the pages, pointing and commenting obnoxiously.

"Ugh. What are these things you've circled? You don't seriously like red berets, do you?"

"Ayumi Hamasaki? In THOSE heels? You've got to be stupid."

"No one wears Me Jane anymore."

"Or Lip Service."

"And what's with this white biker jacket? Miwa Mochizuki so had it wrong there."

"Everyone knows that--"

"Miwa Mochizuki is a fashion goddess." The pair looked up in alarm to see the imperial eyes of mocha and violet.

The glasses came off.

"Wha---What's with your eyes?"

"And any woman of style knows. . . that white biker jackets are retro 80's." Kokoro and Aika's backs were pressed into their chairs, but they could still not escape the strangling gaze of a someone that Aglaia knew not.

Aglaia was no longer there, and her voice fell out of her body, making way for a new conscious.

Two mere mortals were faced with the vengeful glare of a millennium-old goddess.

Aphrodite had taken over.

And she was pissed.

She tore the Popteen from the Aika's hand, though the girl did not protest. "What is this?" she demanded with ultimate authority.

The two girls were stricken speechless in terror. An aura of puissance kept them silent.

"Huh?" Aglaia's pupils expanded and she pulled out her purple pen. "I missed something."

She circled an Alba Rosa handbag and the seat behind her was silent for the rest of the plane ride to Domino.

* * *

**Domino City, Japan**

**Domino City International Airport**

**Departure Gate D-13**

**Friday, January 30th**

**5:20 A.M.**

* * *

Aglaia, as per her nature, was one of the last people to get off of the plane. She was never good at inserting herself into crowds.

When she finally made her way into the airport, Aglaia found her mother with her arms crossed in frustration.

"Where's Dad?" Aglaia asked.

"Oh, he went to get some coffee. But I'm more worried about your brother. I swear, the entire plane ride he was so antsy! He kept bothering the flight attendant about when we were able to use cell phones again. Now he's gotten on the phone and I don't know what to do."

Kalliope pointed to the closed off smoker's area where Kenichi sat shouting through smoke into his cell phone.

Being the mother that she was, it never occurred to her that she could ordain him to tell her who it was he was on the phone with. That wasn't quite the way she rolled.

Aglaia gave her brother a questioning look, which he caught, and got up to leave the smoking area.

"Okay. Tomorrow, behind the school. Okay. Bye." Kenichi slapped his phone shut and looked up to his mother and sister with eyes of innocence.

"Who was that, Keni?" Kalliope asked, reaching out to his shoulder as he characteristically pulled away, not being one for open affection.

"A pen pal. Since we're moving here I figured I'd meet him."

Many problems with this came to mind for Aglaia for Kenichi rarely wrote nor cared for much friendly contact with people. At all.

Kenichi turned a warning eye to Aglaia and she kept her mouth shut, though she would have anyway.

"Sooooo, do either of you have any ideas for decoration?" And the rest of the uncomfortable silence between the siblings was filled with Kalliope's frilly musings.

Aglaia awkwardly twirled her ring. What was on her mind-- her brother's strange behavior-- was quite a different thing than what was currently invading her mind.

Unbeknownst to her, an age old titan with a diva-attitude had been awakened-- and oh, she was pissed.


	5. Coincidence

* * *

**???**

* * *

Aphrodite was accustomed to marble, to white alabaster stone, to paved roads that imitated diamond.

As she walked down the narrow, dark hallway, with only the strangely smooth blue beneath her, she felt thoroughly dissatisfied.

Where was the feast, celebrating her revival? Where were the other gods? Where were the Muses, with golden cloaks to robe her in, and where was her _Seth_?

In the darkness, she came across two doors. One, of an etched mahogany, and one of gleaming marble with shards of gold melded into it.

She obviously chose the one superior.

Pulling the golden ring handle, she boldly stepped into it, not expecting the sand beneath her.

Around her was a vast expanse of beach lined along a high stony cliff, with waterfalls running with wine into the ocean(only fitting!), crystalline statues of her fellow gods(many of which were overgrown with aloe) scattered in the sand, and a crystal staircase leading up into the sky but stopping midair.

Looking around in wonder, many thoughts passed through her mind. Most were questions.

A sparrow flew to her.

She took it in her hands and asked, "What is happening, sparrow?"

It flew away and returned with a golden mirror.

It swirled in a spectrum and then depicted a young man, with ice blue eyes and a step aside glare sat in on moving leather.

"It is my Seth! Surely it is!"

The mirror swirled again and showed a young girl, mouth full of apple and head of wavy lochs.

"And what is this? My look alike? Certainly a bad one."

The girl appeared to be running down a flat gray path.

"Then, look alike, fetch my Seth!"

* * *

**Domino City, Japan**

**Gunma Housing District**

**the corner of Mie Avenue and Hyogo Street**

**Monday, February 2nd**

**7:13 A.M.**

* * *

Aglaia didn't want to be late.

Having to enter class for the first time with everyone's eyes on her?

She might have shuddered at the thought if she weren't sprinting so fiercely.

Regardless of what the orange hand on the sign said, Aglaia ran through the crosswalk only to be met by a black limousine.

* * *

**The Kaiba Limousine**

* * *

"Didn't I tell you to be out front in _less _than two minutes?" Seto Kaiba hissed, ever the tough boss.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kaiba."

"You _are _sorry. And your pay check is sorry, too."

Swallowing, the driver in the worker's hat and driving gloves responded, "Yes sir, Mr. Kaiba."

"And it better not happen again, do you understand? We barely had enough time to drop off Mokuba."

"Yes sir, Mr. Kaiba."

"And another thing--"

He was interrupted by the screeching breaks and a big bump.

"What the hell, Moto--"

But the driver was already out of the door hunched over something that had landed outside his door.

"I'm so sorry! Are you all right--"

Seto Kaiba opened his door to see a girl in a school uniform sprawled out on the road.

Jerking her head up, she reached out for her book bag but grabbed her side instead, presumably the hip that was hit.

The first thing that Kaiba thought was lawsuit.

"I'm-a--I'm-ma-ma--I'ma--ma--" The girl muttered incoherently.

Sighing, Seto ordered, "Motoko, help her into the car."

"Wha--What? N-no, I--" Aglaia first thought of kidnap, then rape, then the tension of being in the car with a stranger and every part of her said no.

"We have the same uniform, don't we? So we're going to the same school. And you obviously aren't going to walk the rest of the way."

"I-- I--"

"Better just do like he says," Motoko warned.

Aglaia stood up as the man handed her the book bag.

Limping into the car, she sat down uncomfortably on the leather seat.

The driver's door slammed and they were on their way.

Aglaia fingered her ring awkwardly, pulling it off and on.

"Are you all right?" The words were mechanical, but Aglaia nodded.

"Th--- Thank you for your help, s--- sir."

"Read the sign next time." He snorted off her annoying formalities.

The rest of the ride proceeded in silence, just the way the both of them liked it.

* * *

**Domino High**

**Main Entrance**

* * *

When the limo stopped in front of the school, Aglaia leapt out, nearly falling again, but caught herself and limp/fast-walked towards the area that had the most main office-y feel to it.

Out of the corner of his contemptuous eyes, Seto Kaiba caught sight of a brass ring on the seat.

_"Cheap," _was his first thought.

Picking it up, he felt the strangest pull.

Maybe-- maybe the metal of the ring was attracted magnetically to the metal of his cuff links.

Yes. That had to be it.

He placed it into his pocket and remarked, "On time this afternoon," before leaving.

* * *

**Domino High School**

**Main Office**

* * *

"Honestly," Aglaia heard one teacher preach to the other, "what is it with this generation? Such degenerates."

Who said that teachers didn't bad talk the students in the teacher's lounge?

Aglaia cleared her throat shyly but got no response.

"Like this new Atsuko Kenichi boy!" Aglaia's eyebrows popped.

"First day of school, and he goes and gets into that God forsaken Duelist Trading Circuit," the woman continued.

Duelist Trading Circuit?

"What is it with this card game that makes everyone so serious? But stealing is even more serious," the other equally staunch teacher agreed.

Stealing?

"That boy will pay for those stolen cards," the two decided.

Aglaia interjected, "M---M'am?"

"Hm? Oh, you must be Atsuko Aglaia." Stamping the papers the student forms Aglaia handed to her, the woman waved off the girl. "Get to class now."

* * *

**Domino High School**

**Class 4-C**

**Homeroom**

**7:23 A.M.**

* * *

Tea Gardner sighed. She had been doing that a lot lately.

No magical card games, no mystical ancient artifacts, no crazy megalomaniacs.

Just school uniforms and watching the boys play Duel Monsters on their school desks.

Of course, it was nice to have more free time, to spend life as a normal teenager-- but the strange things that she had been lead to believe (and the Pharaoh that she had nearly fallen in love with) were both gone.

Life would never be the same and that life she knew-- they all knew-- would grow dusty and become vague.

She thought, once, that maybe, when they got older, they would look back on it and not believe that it was real. That was a really sad thought.

Maybe _she'd_ even stop believing it had happened. She was already cynical about it.

There was nothing magical about school.

Atsuko Aglaia stepped in the door.

* * *

Aching, burning, hurting.

Aglaia had to go to the nurse. But-- what if she walked into the middle of class and the teacher yelled at her in front of the class?

No-- she couldn't. But, oh-- she had to.

Trying her hardest not to limp, the girl with inch thick glasses fell over the desk of a girl with flawlessly straight honey hair and knocked her eye shadow into her lap.

The first thing that Aglaia saw when she opened her eyes was the brown Sephora eyeshadow ($40? $50?) all over the girl's skirt.

And then the fierce eyes above them.


	6. Fate

* * *

**Domino High School**

**Class 4-C**

**Homeroom Period**

**7:24 A.M.**

* * *

"I-I-I-I-I-I---" Aglaia sounded like a generic salsa dancer letting out a mating call.

She scrambled frantically on the floor for her glasses, placing them on her face, and stuttering to the point of near mouth foaming.

"Sorry!" she shouted, pulling the attention of the class to her. "I--"

"You think you're going to ruin my skirt and eye shadow, then just say 'sorry', then everything will be okay?!" The silky-haired girl was seething.

"Who are you, anyway?" A girl with wavy black hair and crossed arms stared down at Aglaia, still on the floor.

"I--" Aglaia stood up shakily but stepped back when the other girls approached. "I'm sorry. . ."

"And?" the girl pardoned.

"And. . . I'll try to pay you back," Aglaia mumbled.

"What was that?"

"I said. . . I'll try to pay you back."

"You'll _try_?"

"Well--"

"You'll _do_ it."

"Oh--okay."

"And you'll pay me back for my skirt, too, _right_?"

"Ye--Yes. . ."

"Hmph." The girl looked Aglaia up and down. "Good. What's your name?"

"A-- Aglaia. . ."

"I'm Reina. Remember that name, it'll be what you write on the check."

Followed by the girls surrounding her, the honey-haired belle migrated to another part of the class.

Face as red as a track runner, Aglaia scurried to the back of the room (limping as minimally as she could) as the surrounding classmates whispered.

Tea took a long look at the strange new girl; she felt the oddest aura of familiarity.

Picking up her book bag and notebook, Tea moved towards Aglaia in back of the classroom by the window.

The curly-haired girl took her face out of her crossed arms on the desk and stared wide-eyed at the girl who approached with a friendly smile, that unfamiliar smile.

"Hi there."

A moment of silence passed.

"Uh--"

"Oh, hi." The girl blushed a deep shade of red. "Sorry. . ."

"Oh," the brunette giggled. "It's okay. But hey, have I seen you before?"

"Uh--" Aglaia didn't seem to think, but instead to stumble over her thought. "No."

"Oh." Tea's eyebrows furrowed and unfurrowed. "Well, my name is Tea. What's your name?"

"Uh--" Was she really trying to remember her name? "Aglaia."

Chuckling(as though she were familiar with personalities such as these), Tea added, "Nice to meet you, Aglaia."

Tea thought how convenient it would be for Joey, Tristan, and Yugi to enter at that moment, but no such luck.

"So. . . where are you coming from, Aglaia?"

"I-- moved from Tokyo." Aglaia's anthropophobia was dissolving.

"That's so cool! What is Tokyo like?" And Tea pondered to the irony of having been to Egypt but not having been to her own country's capital.

"Oh-- It's okay." A moment of silence passed and far off at the North Pole, an ice glacier seemed to break. "I-- never really lived in the city part. But-- Shibuya has the best fashion."

"Oh! Have you ever been to the 109 Building? I've always wanted to see it."

"No, but me too. They-- They have a lot of-- of cute boutiques."

"I bet your wardrobe is full of cute clothes. I'm so jealous."

"No--"

"Hey Tea, who's the new kid?" A boy with thick blonde hair plopped a book bag down on the seat in front of Aglaia.

"This is Aglaia," she gleefully introduced with a hand out for presentation.

"N-nice to meet you." Aglaia adjusted her glasses nervously.

"Joey Wheeler. Pleased to meet ya!" He held out a rough hand and Aglaia hesitantly took it. He shook her limb that her elbow popped; obviously an exuberant character.

"And this fool right here is Tristan," he said, holding out his hand towards said "fool".

"What was that, lamebrain?" A boy with brunette hair sat down beside him in front of Tea.

"Nothing you didn't already know."

"And this little guy over here is Yugi!"

Aglaia looked to see a short boy with freakish starburst hair and innocent violet eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Aglaia." He smiled something incredibly bright.

Aglaia had a seeping revelation, realizing now that these people were unduly accepting. They were the type of people she didn't believe existed.

Yugi sat down in front of Joey and they immediately each drew out decks of cards.

"You just wait, Yug, this time I'll beat you."

"You just might, Joey."

"My money's on Yugi."

"Eh, shuddup, ya moron."

The boys launched themselves into a game of cards and Tea's eyes glazed over. She had long since grown weary of shuffled decks and shuffling cards. Without the electronic enhancement it wasn't quite the same.

Aglaia suddenly felt the deepest urge to begin a conversation but she couldn't find her self able to for the life of her.

Instead, she pulled out a black notebook and looked for a blank page. Tea immediately set her eyes on it, wondering what is was.

"What's that?"

Aglaia subtly jumped out of her own skin.

"Um-- it's-- um--" Aglaia's face reddened and she looked down on the notebook as though she herself were contemplating what it was.

"Uh-- it's okay if you don't want to show me."

The girl's face muscles relaxed. "Thank you."

"What do you want, money-bags?"

The two girls turned to see the boys glaring up at a tall, icicle-like person making the school uniform look specifically more blue.

"Nothing to do with you, Wheeler." The boy's eyes shifted to Aglaia and she found herself frozen, as well.

"You," he established. "Is this yours?" He held out the brass ring.

Aglaia checked her finger and had a mini-episode before she turned to the boy, stuttering, with a "yes".

Scoffing, he said, "Take it."

He held it out and their hands touched.

* * *

**? ? ?**

* * *

The room around Aphrodite disappeared in a flash and was replaced with darkness, a darkness with jolts of the oddest blue electricity routed through it.

"What is this?" the goddess shouted to the ever echoing space. "Se-- Seth?"

As though upon her call, the blue jolts conjoined and formed-- what was that?-- an apparition.

It tried to take a shape and nearly succeeded.

It formed a two legs, a cape, upwards-- then a face. It was--

"Seth!" Aphrodite reached out in front of her, but her hands passed through the ghost. "Wha-- What is going on?"

"I-- I don't have much time--" As though speaking through a rainstorm, his voice was hard to hear.

"What is it, Seth? What is happening?"

"Listen to me-- we have been reborn."

"Is-- is that what that girl was? Seth, but how--"

"Only-- only when our incarnations are in union can we--"

"Seth? Seth!!"

This time the darkness consumed Aphrodite, as well.

* * *

**Back in the Classroom**

* * *

Gently lifting the ring, Aglaia held it in her palm.

"I-- thank you. . ."

The boy sneered and left.

"What was _that _all about?" Tristan and Joey exchanged a look.

"W--Well. . . he. . helped me to school, and I guess I left my ring. . ."

"Woah, Kaiba helped somebody? Never thought I would have seen the day."

"Oh come on, Joey. Kaiba's not that bad," Tea quipped.

"K-- Kaiba?" Aglaia stuttered characteristically

"Have you never heard of him?" Tea asked.

"I know Kaiba. Was that boy-- was he a Kaiba?"

"That's _the_ Kaiba," Tristan answered. "He runs the Kaiba Corporation and makes more money than all of our parents combined. If the law didn't keep him from dropping out than he wouldn't even be here. He skips most days, anyway. I'm surprised he's here."

"K-- Kaiba. . ." Aglaia mumbled thoughtfully.

It occurred to her that that man was the one that crushed her father's dreams and tore her from her home.

* * *

**So? How was it? Are you ready for the plot to thicken even further?**

**Well? Don't you love me? Aren't you going to review?**


	7. Formality

* * *

**Later That Day**

* * *

Aglaia, unaccustomed to the feeling of a friendly atmosphere with Yugi and pals, was deeply disappointed when all of her new friends left homeroom whence the roll was called and the bell rang.

The unsocial new girl sat in a shroud of silence amongst all of the teenage banter.

She remained in her seat as the chairs shuffled and she pulled out her mythology class book. It was a topic that interested her, but there really wasn't any need for her to learn about the Greek lore.

For, while other girls heard of princesses and dragons as they fell asleep at night, Aglaia heard about golden arrows and Greek gods, though she was raised as a Greek Orthodox Christian, as every member of her mother's family had been before her.

"Enough, enough now!" A woman with a tight bun and wrinkly hands clapped sharply and the students all slid into their seats.

"There, there we go." She pulled down a map from above the white board to reveal an old, nautical looking laminate with sea beasts and an island of sirens.

"Now, if the new face is any indication, I do believe that we have a new student in our midst."

The woman looked straight into Aglaia's face and nearly broke it. Metaphorically, of course.

"Well, now, don't be rude. Stand up and introduce yourself, um--" she glanced at the roll sheet. "Atsuko."

"Um-- I-- I'm--"

"Now now, don't stumble over your words. Speak up!"

"Atsuko Aglaia. . ." she muttered into her staunch torso.

"And where are you from, Atsuko Aglaia?"

"T-- Tokyo. . ."

"Tokyo." The woman gave an unreadable grimace. "Yes. Sit down now and stop bowing. It's embarrassing."

Indeed, Aglaia was embarrassed.

Sinking into a random page of her book, Aglaia's red face faded slowly as the woman, who had introduced herself as Ikeda-sensei, jumped straight into a lesson about the Greek goddesses.

"Now, If you've done the reading, you know that Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty. Famous for her promiscuity, it is ironic that she is also considered the goddess of chastity." Ikeda said it as though she found it more hilarious than both deserved detentions and boys with piercings combined.

Suddenly Aglaia's head pulsed with a surge of pain. It was odd, she thought, because she didn't usually get migraines.

"She was born, so it is said, when Ouranos castrated--" The class chuckled in muffles and the weird new girl grabbed her forehead. "--Cronus, the first generation Titan, who threw his severed genitalia into the sea." More chuckling proceeded so the pained grown that came from Aglaia went unheard.

Ikeda slammed her hand on the desk of a boy in the first row.

"Silence please."

Silence answered her.

"Thank you." She nodded in agreement. "Now, there was sea foam, the shell, you've all seen the picture." A boy sitting behind Aglaia punched a boy next to him in the arm, whispered something perverted that on any other occasion would have caused Aglaia to blush profusely..

It felt as though the Grand Canyon was caving in inside of her head.

Her inhibitions fell behind her as the pure pain gripped her mind. A wrestler had her brain in a headlock. A steal compressor was reforming her mind's shape. A thousand metaphors shot through her, all of them more painful than the last.

"Aglaia? Aglaia! Stop that, what's the matter with you?"

Aglaia looked up at Ikeda looking down on her.

"May-- May I be excused-- please? I-- my head--"

"Yes, yes. Go," she shooed the girl away and, running out of the room and down the hallway, the sound of her footsteps faded into the sound of inaudible voice like a radio unsure of which station it was on.

Reality was obscured with the figurative buzzing of blurred thoughts. Her legs beneath her became the only thing she saw and it completely evaded her that she had no idea where the clinic was.

* * *

**In Another Classroom**

* * *

Seto Kaiba was a courteous man.

He knew he was leagues more intelligent than his calculus teacher, however advanced he claimed his class to be, and he kindly humored the man with liver spots. He attended class like a good boy, as the law mandated.

In the back of the class room, his Kaiba Corp all purpose cell phone that would turn the Blackberry green with envy softly vibrated in his pocket.

The text message read something that actually managed to put emotion into Seto Kaiba's stolid face.

_Mr. Kaiba: Your deck has been stolen._

And without a word, Seto was gone.

The teacher was courteous enough not to say a thing.

* * *

**In The Hallway

* * *

**

Seto was turning a corner when a girl in uniform-- the girl from before-- ran into him and fell back onto the floor without so much as a stumble from him.

"Just great." Seto Kaiba was faced with the pressing dilemma of whether he should save a damsel in distress. That damsel being a thick haired girl on the hallway floor with her skirt flipped over and her glasses flown off.

Sighing with his natural fear of law suits, he picked her up with her chunky glasses in hand and walked briskly down the hall.

* * *

**In The Infirmary

* * *

**

Nurse Sasaki was chewing her pencil in blank monotony when she heard a thump and three loud bangs on the door.

Jumping from her seat, she opened it and the body of an unconscious girl fell on her legs. Looking around and seeing no one, she lifted the girl with her glasses held loosely in her hands onto the bed and set the glasses down on the table beside her.

Sasaki Tora noticed that her forehead was peculiarly warm and set a cool towel on it but failed to note that the ring on her finger was burning even hotter.

* * *

**? ? ?**

* * *

The floor below her, as black as the oblivion above her, was the only thing that Aglaia could hold onto.

Never had she seen such darkness, but oddly enough, she could see her own skin. It seemed to glow.

Could it be a dream? No-- it was too real to be a dream. It was as though she had been pulled into a sheer back flash in a Korean drama.

And then the voice-- the same muffled voice from before-- came into earshot. Aglaia looked around but saw no one approaching.

"Why I've never been so insulted! The nerve of that ugly woman! Just she wait until I get out of here, I'll break her heart so many times that there won't be anything but dust left of it! She should be bowing at my temple if she wants any kind of fortune! Just she wait--"

Then, as though an apparition, the ghostly depiction of the goddess Aphrodite came into being, first as a cloud, then as an exact portrait.

Aglaia stared for a moment at the ranting woman, pacing around and shouting, and decided wholeheartedly that this was a dream.

Finally, the woman turned and looked at Aglaia.

"Well? What are you doing, standing around? Bow!"

"Wha-- What?"

"Need I introduce myself?! I am Aphrodite, holder of the key to eternal beauty and the sole knower of love's formula! Now fall down and praise me!"

Aglaia continued to stare and pinched herself, surprised at the slight sting that it produced.

"Have I been gone from the mortal plain so long that I've lost my respect?! Well, if you weren't my body, I'd doom you and all of your descendants to lifelong loneliness!"

The woman mumbled to herself, "I hope Eros has been doing his job, lest man kind return to complete animal state. . ."

Aglaia suddenly felt the need to convince this vision that it was what she wanted it to be.

"You-- you're a dream. You're not real." Aglaia eyes were wide and staring.

"What? Of course I'm real, you silly mortal! Don't you see me? Am I not here? And surely you've seen the other gods. Where are they? I will need more energy to conquer this vessel."

"Wha-- What? No-- this is a dream!" Aglaia's arms waved around in front of her.

"Dream?" Aphrodite walked straight in front of Aglaia and slapped her across her face. "Does that feel like a dream?"

Aglaia's eye twitched as confusion and realization swirled inside of her. Her mind was playing tricks on her, wasn't it? Wasn't it?

"Or this?" Slap. "Or this?" Slap. "Or this?"

"Okay, okay! I-- I get it! Stop slapping me!" Aglaia tried to step away from the woman but she grabbed her by her wrists.

"You're looking at your soul," she said as she lifted the girl's hands to her face. "Your mind's-soul, at least. It's all quite hard to explain to a mortal like you. I'd tell you about it if I had the time, but right now we have very many pressing matters at hand!"

"Wha-- Wha-- Wha--" A thought tornado was clouding her judgement and Aglaia began to believe that this was no dream (not a regular one, at least) and her sore cheeks concurred.

"Don't be stupid, girl! Pay attention to me now. I need this body."

"What? No!"

"I don't intend to kill you! I just need to take over this vessel so that I can find my Seth and we can be together. Then you can have your body back."

"What? You're not making sense! Slow-- slow down! What?!"

Aphrodite slapped her again and out of fury unlike her nature, she tried to slap the woman back but her wrist was caught before she could.

"Listen to me! Our souls have been fused. Can't you see? It's all quite obvious, but I suppose a mortal's judgement is not as clever as my own."

"What?"

"Our minds! They are one. It is the ring that makes us this way. I don't know why it has taken so long but finally I have been awakened, and thus, _you_ are my vessel. Is that simple enough for you?"

"Wha. . ." Aglaia looked downward as though there were something to look at. "If I were a-- a vessel, what would I do?"

"You would be my body while I seek out my Seth! And you will be."

"Who is Seth?"

"He is my love, my true love." Error seemed to strike Aglaia as the supposed goddess swooned.

"Wait a minute. I know a lot about Greek mythology and Aph--"

"Mythology? Mythology?! Am I but lore to you?!! All we gods, we have form! We exist and we rule your world! How are you so stupid!?" Aphrodite pulled her hand back to slap but Aglaia spoke first.

"But they don't! They don't rule the world like in the stories! They're just myths!"

Aphrodite scoffed. "They are not!"

"They are, too! And when you see the world you will know!"

Aphrodite stared at her.

"And even in the stories, Aphrodite was never in love with a 'Seth'."

"Pity, pity . . ." The woman mumbled to herself and Aglaia became confused. "For our love story would have been the greatest of them all!" And if it were in her character, Aglaia would have face-palmed.

But as for Aphrodite's character, it certainly fit. The dramatics, the fierceness, the self-righteousness. . . and of course, the strange nature of real, physical pain in a dream.

Aglaia thought, knowing that it was against all logic, that it might be her, the real Aphrodite.

"Well, of course it's me, stupid girl!"

"How-- How--"

"Didn't I tell you? We share minds! I know what you know, but I know more!" She seemed rather proud of it, too.

"Well-- well, what do you need?"

"I already said what I needed! I need your body to be my vessel while I seek out my Seth. Together we will find his incarnation, as well, and then I will be with him."

"How-- How--"

Aphrodite slapped Aglaia. Again.

"Stop stuttering so stupidly! Speak with confidence and prowess or no good man will ever court you."

"Well, what will we do when we find your-- your Seth?"

"That bridge will be crossed when we arrive at it. Now, give me your mind."

"What-- my mind?"

"Did I stutter? Yes, your mind. Give it to me."

"No-- No!" Aglaia grabbed her head and tried to scream. Not from her soul, or her mind's-soul, or whatever it was, but from her real, true mouth.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not upset a goddess?!"

Darkness became light and Aglaia saw nothing, but felt like a blind man playing tug-of-war.

Waking up to the white light of a clinic, she found that she had won this round.


	8. This

* * *

**Domino High School**

**The Lunch Hall**

**12:43 P.M.**

* * *

The Tylenol had yet to take effect as Aglaia walked the empty halls to the lunch hall. She had decided to keep her ring in her pocket.

Maybe it was due to her wooziness, Aphrodite cursing her, or just plain bad luck, but whatever it was, something had her run into the girls from the morning previous yet again, just as she entered the cafeteria.

"Hey, Uglia, right?" a girl with shining hair asked.

"Um, it's--"

"Whatever. Listen, here's your bill."

"My-- my what?"

"Your bill. Your I.O.U? You said you're paying back for my skirt, right?"

"Uh--"

"And the makeup, right?" Something in her tone said that she better.

"Uh--"

"Good girl. Here it is."

Aglaia looked down at the napkin-written bill and she saw why it had to be written down.

Nervously pushing her glasses up her nose, Aglaia nearly spoke but was interrupted.

"And I'll need it by tomorrow. You know the sale down at the multiplex is starting and--" The girl looked Aglaia up and down again. "Oh wait, you don't know."

The friends behind her began to giggle and Aglaia blushed, searching for the strength in her legs to stand and fight, but only finding the strength to flee.

Before she could quite get past, a girl with brown hair nudged past her shoulder and stood between the crowd and her cowering self. Tea.

"Hey, Reina, leave her alone. What's your problem? Why do you have to pick on the new kid?"

"Oh, excuse me, _Tea_, but I was just trying to get my money's worth."

"You don't have to be rude about it."

"Why don't you bug out because it's none of your business?" Reina's eyes became dangerous, vindictive slits.

"Yeah, Tea, don't be such a self righteous bitch all the time," a girl with straight black hair behind Reina picked up your courage and spoke.

"Hey, why don't you all cool it?" Joey now stood beside Tea and his height was intimidating. Tristan was the same, on the other side.

This little display threw Aglaia off. She was slightly-- confused.

But then, more confused that Yuugi was nowhere to be seen.

"Ugh. Fine, whatever. Freaks."

Reina, followed by the group of girls who seemed to agree with most everything she said, left the few. As soon as she stepped aside, a girl with a ribbon-ed ponytail came with bowl of cold udon noodles towards Aglaia, who stood back and closed her eyes.

She felt herself pushed back slightly and took the rank, mushroom-y liquid on her skirt, but only a few drops.

She opened her eyes and saw little Yuugi with noodles knotted into his hair and a shrimp clinging to his shoulder.

"HEY! What was that?!" Joey clenched his fists, forgetting for a moment that they were girls he wanted to pummel.

"You jerks!" But Tea was fully prepared to pummel a few girls.

"That wasn't cool!" And Tristan would love watching.

Giggling and tittering, the group left in a cloud of victory.

Stepping forward after them, Tea spoke a threat she wouldn't fulfill. "You're gonna regret that!"

"I--- I-- I--" Aglaia's face reddened to the point of bursting and she did all she knew to do.

She ran out of the cafeteria as quickly as her legs would take her.

* * *

**Down a Back Street Alley**

**12:43 P.M.

* * *

**

"I-- I-- I don't know anything!" The hairy twenty-three-year-old in sweats picked a fretfully empty alley to try and run down.

Shrieking wouldn't do any good here, especially with three Kaiba Corp attack hounds cornering him and the top dog himself standing behind them with a pissed off look on his face.

"Hm. I don't think either of us believe that. Now I'll ask you one. More. Time."

Seto Kaiba glared the glare that made his secretary piss himself a little.

"_Where is my deck?_"

"I-- I-- I-----" The man whined under the pressure that large suited man had around his neck. "It's-- It's Atsuko Kenichi!"

"Who?" Seto inquired.

The man with the neck hold on their victim pulled his neck and his face upward. "Talk to the boss's face."

"It's Atsuko Kenichi! He's new in town-- from Tokyo, I think-- and we gave the deck to him."

"Hmph." His loaded gun blue eyes stared down at the sweaty man in contemplation. "I don't buy it. Why would you give it to some stranger from Tokyo?"

"He-- He thinks he's gonna keep it, but really the higher ups are--"

"Are what?"

"Uhg--"

"Are _what_?"

"They're using him as a target, okay?! He's just holding it right now and some guys are gonna go after him later tonight to rough him up and get the deck. That's all I know! I swear! Please don't hurt me!"

The suited man dropped the begging fool to his knees.

"Hmph. Scum like you disgust me."

And they left that man sitting there, grasping his throat.

They loaded into the docked Kaiba limousine and he pressed the voice activation button on his Kaiba Corp handheld device.

"Computer," he addressed, "I need everything you can find on Atsuko Kenichi."

* * *

Aglaia returned to the nurse's office, this time with an apparently severe migraine. Of course, she had to go home, and the young nurse couldn't tell her no.

* * *

_Dear Yugi: Please don't be mad at me. I'm very, very sorry. I'll pay you back for your uniform. I'm very, very sorry. From Aglaia._

"Will you look at that," Joey said as he read over Yugi's shoulder at the note found in the smaller boy's locker.

"That girl was kind of weird," Tristan pointed out.

"You think?" Joey quipped.

"I think it's sweet. She's just shy. I remember when someone else was shy like that," Tea crossed her arms and smiled in reminiscence.

Yugi smiled and placed the note in his pocket. "We'll see her tomorrow. Right now is anyone up for Burger Land?"

* * *

**In The Atsuko Apartment

* * *

**

"Oh, sweetie pie," Kalliope, Aglaia's mother, cooned as she took her daughter's temperature. "Are you sure you're sick?"

Aglaia nodded like the little girl she looked like, hiding under a blanket with her mother tending to her.

"Aglaia," her mother said in that D-on-the-report-card tone.

"They don't like me there!" she exclaimed, unfolding herself from the couch.

"Aglaia! You're going to have to face strangers someday. And your knees can't be shaking while you're doing it."

Aglaia looked down at said knees.

"Now, get dressed. They're getting ready for a sale tonight at the mall! You know you can find the niftiest things in magazines. Like there's this dog up for adoption, and I think it was a Pekin-something. . ." Kalliope's voice faded as she left the room in a cloud of clearance perfume.

* * *

The Kaiba limousine drove by the school but he didn't bother entering.

A man in sunglasses and a black suit returned and sat across from his boss with two folders in his hands.

"Here is the Atsuko profile," he spoke and set the the boy's homework beside him without a word about it.

"There are two profiles here."

"Him and his sister. I couldn't take just one and leave suspicion."

Seto nodded. He glanced at the picture in the Atsuko sister's profile, scoffed, and turned to raid Kenichi's for information.

* * *

**the Domino City Mall**

**5:22 P.M.

* * *

**

"Aglaia, pick something!" It was the clearance rack in Style Berry and Aglaia was tied up tight in a purple hoodie.

"But mom," she mumbled. "I would never wear that."

"Fine, fine! Have it your way," she huffed, causing a scene. "Let's just hit the food court and bust out of here." The dark olive-skinned mother tried her best at modern-day slang.

Aglaia followed a few steps behind her high-heeled mother with her face down.

"Aglaia!" a voice rang out.

The frumpy girl was taken completely by surprise, and she looked around like a startled meerkat from its burrow.

"Over here!" A girl with a box-like brunette bob in a pink school uniform was waving undeniably at Aglaia, and the shock Kalliope saw on her daughter's face surpassed anything she ever witnessed upon any opened gift.

Looking back at her mother, Aglaia took the frantic shooing as a yes and made her way towards Tea as quickly as she could without tripping.

Several steps away and-- _stumble!_- did anyone see that? No. No one saw that. No one.

When Aglaia came face to face with Tea, she noticed the remnants of a giggle, along with chuckling behind her.

"Hey, Aglaia," Tea greeted, and the three boys behind her. Aglaia's eyes immediately locked on Yugi.

"Yugi, I--"

"Don't worry about it, Aglaia. It's not a big deal."

Aglaia's face then went slightly blank, only to be replaced with a broad smile.

"Th--- Thank you!"

"Don't worry about it!" Yugi assured her, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Hey," Tristan, the boy with over-gelled hair in the back, addressed. "We were gonna go check out the arcade. Wanna come with?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun!" Tea encouraged.

Aglaia looked back at her mother who was barely resisting taking a picture with her cell phone.

"Sh-Sure!"

* * *

When the motley crew entered the arcade, the flashing lights and electronic beeping had the boys going from zero to eighty in less than three seconds.

Aglaia practically held onto the back of Tea's shirt as the two ventured towards the center of the increasingly loud electrical parade.

Aglaia nearly bumped into the Tea's back when she halted immediately. When Aglaia tried to ask why, she saw that the awed expression on Tea's face was directed at the two girls twirling around and getting wooed at on the Dance Dance Revolution machine.

In an odd blur, Tea grabbed Aglaia by the wrist (saying something along the lines of "Come on!", though it was drained out by the crowd) and pulled her towards the huge device.

Aglaia's train of thought went an awful lot like a buzzing radio. As soon as she tuned back into her station, she found herself staring up at a screen that told her she wasn't very good at dancing.

Booing was heard all around and Tea again urged her to "come on", so Aglaia proceeded in attempting to dance-- something she hadn't done since ballet in the second grade. (And that medical bill wasn't anything to be scoffed at.)

It began hesitantly, and though the crowds and the screen told her differently, Aglaia thought that she wasn't doing too badly.

That was until she found herself on her back over the arrow buttons as the screen raved "OWNED!".

Aglaia refused to rise (with the taste of vomit apparent in her mouth and a red face that threatened to burst) until a manicured hand reached down at her. Tea.

She took said hand, and with nothing but concern on her face, Tea led Aglaia into an adequately dark corner.

"Sorry about that. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she blatantly lied as she reached up to adjust her glasses-- that weren't there.

"Where-- where are my glasses?! Where are my glasses!?!" Aglaia cupped her hands over her eyes.

"I've got them here!" Tea pulled them out of her purse, wondering what the panic was.

"You saw my eyes," she moaned to herself.

"What's the matter?"

"My eyes, they're-- oh, I'm sorry!"

Aglaia got up to run away, but Tea grabbed her elbow.

"Aglaia, stop it! Tell me what's wrong!"

"I've embarrassed myself so badly. . ."

"I don't care, Aglaia. You're my friend. Stuff like that doesn't matter."

Aglaia slowly took her hands off of her eyes.

"Really?" she couldn't help but inquire.

"Absolutely." She smiled a smile that Aglaia hadn't seen before. "Let's go find the guys. They'll be up for food if we can drag them away from their games."

Aglaia heard her mind's inner station loud and clear: _So this is what it feels like_.

* * *

_[finally, right? I have good news if you've gotten this far. . . and enjoyed it. you can expect frequent, weekly updates from here on out. review if you dare.]_


	9. Shock

**Domino City, Japan**

**The Gunma Tenyo Housing Complex**

**Tenyo Townhouse 435**

**Monday, February 2nd**

**10:49 P.M.**

* * *

Aglaia hadn't felt so giddy since Yohji Yamamoto and Takada Kenzo did a collaboration show in the fall of 2006.

She had spent the remainder of the evening at the mall with Yugi, Tea, Tristan, and Joey until it closed. Who knew that hamburgers and milkshakes could be so wildly entertaining?

It was like all of the times that Aglaia saw groups of friends laughing together, only this time, she was part of them. It was so strangely fantastic.

It was 10:49 and the bus stopped on her street corner. She made haste towards her family's small townhouse, squeezed in between two others, under the street lights and knocked on the door only to have it swung open in her face.

Her father looked at her in frantic anger and then took on a sort of relief.

"Aglaia, it's you. Come inside, come in quick."

"D-Daddy, what's wrong?"

"It's your brother," he informed as he hurried back into the kitchen where his wife, Kalliope, was sobbing into the phone.

"Here," he said as he took the phone out of her hands. "Yes, I'm here. . . Sorry, that was my wife. . . Yes, yes. . . He has a Japanese face with with spiked hair and dark eyes. . ." His voice faded as he walked into the room.

"Mom, what's wrong? Where's Kenichi?"

"Keni-- Keni-- Keni-- Keni--" she hiccuped, unable to form coherent words.

"Yes? What happened to Keni?"

"He's _gone!!!_" she shouted.

"Gone?! Where did he go?!"

"I-- I dunno! Guys in a limo came and said they were looking for him and he didn't come home and he didn't call and he's gone and I'm worr-i-i-i-ied!!!" Kalliope spewed out a long string of words and continued in slobbering all over herself.

She grabbed onto Aglaia and sobbed into her sweater.

At a very convenient moment, Aglaia heard a loud bump from the ceiling above her. She pried her mother off of her as lovingly as she could and ran upstairs.

She threw open her bedroom door-- the source of the noise-- and saw Kenichi on the floor.

Before Aglaia could say anything, Kenichi grabbed her by the collar of her sweatshirt.

"Listen, Aglaia, I don't have much time." He kept his eye on the open window and the street alley below it. "Tell Mom and Dad not to look for me. I'll come back when I can-- maybe in two or three weeks-- but I need to you try and stay in doors. They might come looking for you, and if they try to talk to you, I need you to scream and run, run as fast as you can--"

"Kenichi! What are you talking about? You're acting crazy--"

"You don't understand!" he shouted, and held his hands over his head in anguish.

"I don't understand what?"

"This! This!!" He pulled a glass case holding what looked like a deck of cards out of his jacket. "They'll _kill _me for this! You don't know what they'll do to me!" He began to pace hastily around the room. "This was stupid. This was so _stupid!! _What was I thinking?!"

"What is that? And who are "they"? I don't understand this. Kenichi! Please, calm down!"

Kenichi turned to her, shaking with desperation.

"The Kaiba Corporation! Kaiba Corp! Oh, I've heard stories about their tactics, but I never thought they'd be true! They already got Ushio, Yuki, Kimura--"

"Kaiba Corp? As in Seto Kaiba?" Aglaia's mental image went to him sitting across from her the limousine, looking as much like an icicle as a man could.

"Yes! And this is his deck! His famous deck! I'm holding his Blue Eyes White Dragons in my hands!"

"For Duel Monsters?" Aglaia's eyebrows knitted. She knew that Duel Monsters was as big-- bigger than Pokemon and Disney combined, and that Kaiba Corp specialized in such things, but she wasn't getting the idea. "I still don't understand! Kenichi! Please, please stop it."

Kenichi grabbed his sister by the shoulders and held her tight. He pulled her face up to his and stared straight into her eyes with the most terror she had ever seen.

"Keni-- you're hurting--," she plead, but he interrupted her.

"Listen to me," he whispered with slow, focussed dread. "I. Have. Seto. Kaiba's. Deck. He's looking for me, and when if finds me, he'll kill me." Kaiba? Kill? Somehow that constant look in his eyes and the idea of thug violence seemed extremely compatible.

"You have to stay here. Whatever you do, don't let them find you. Stay home from school if you have to, just stay safe."

Kenichi let go of her, and she rubbed her sore shoulders.

He mumbled something about, "I'll find somewhere," and jumped out of the window onto the fire escape.

"Wait! Kenichi!" Aglaia called out of the window when she found herself. He was already halfway down the alley.

There was a small moment in which Aglaia had time to think. Get her parents? Shout after him? Follow him? Start crying?

Thankfully, she did not choose the latter, and found herself uncharacteristically empowered with courage.

She tried to heroically leap out of the window but got the belt hinge of her jeans caught. She yanked several times, as she watched her brother turn the corner, and tore her pants pulling away.

Aglaia shuffled down the metal stairs as quickly as she could. She ran down the alley at a pace much slower than that of her brother, and the realization dawned that she could not catch him this way.

When she reached the opening into the street, Aglaia looked to her right and saw horror itself.

A black car with headlights blaring, focused on Kenichi. All around him, men in black suits. And then, Seto Kaiba himself, staring down at her brother with not a shred of mercy.

Aglaia felt the need to scream, but couldn't find her lungs within her.

She ran as quickly as she could (much faster than before, apparently) towards her brother on an impulse. The girl fell onto the ground, tearing the knees of her jeans and probably causing bleeding. She turned her head up and shouted with newfound lungs her brother's name.

Continuing when all she earned were a few turned heads, Aglaia ran again and slammed into the backs of several suited men surrounding Kenichi.

"Kenichi! Kenichi!" was all she could say. Well, more like shriek.

"What are you doing?! Run! Go back!" He waved his arms in an attempt to motivate her.

The fierce Kaiba standing over Kenichi switched his eyes toward Aglaia, but did not move another muscle.

With all of the strength she could muster, Aglaia idly pried and punched at the men around her older brother, so one did not hesitate in turning around and wrapping one of his huge hands around her neck.

Kenichi stood and shouted, only to be held back by two of the men.

Kaiba, watching this affair, nodded slightly at the man holding Aglaia, and he realeased her.

Almost falling, she held onto Kenichi, who held her the same, both equally protective.

"Leave my brother alone!" Aglaia shouted, like a demanding child.

The imposing henchmen held their circle and Kaiba only sneered onto the silence that held panting for the Greek descended two.

The Kaiba Corp. CEO held out his hand in a menacing manner and his threatening expression did not move a half an inch.

Aglaia shook her brother into realization and Kenichi pulled out the glass case from his jacket. Trembilng, he held it out to Seto who snatched in with disdain.

Frigid blue eyes turned to the glass case. A moment of analysis.

"Hmph."

Not even snapping his fingers, Seto Kaiba's goons followed him back to the car, loaded in, and were gone before the Atsukos realized it.

After the car turned to corner, Aglaia turned to her brother and finally cried.

* * *

[loosely based season 0 seto. . . he was scary.]


	10. Wake

**The Kaiba Corp. Limousine**

* * *

Atsuki was deeply confused by his boss.

He knew that the young Kaiba was capable of all matter of corporate cruelty and to see him shed any type of mercy seemed out of place.

"Atsuki," Seto addressed, sitting across form him in the silent limousine.

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba?"

"I want the full profile on the Atsuko girl on my desk before dawn breaks."

And there wasn't much more to be said.

* * *

**Domino City, Japan**

**the Domino City Mall**

**Rakuten Department Store**

**Wednesday, February 18th**

**7:55 P.M.

* * *

**

Three weeks had passed and Aglaia found herself behaving more like a regular girl than she ever thought possible.

She was beginning to wear short sleeve shirts in public and she went out with her friends nearly every night.

Rakuten, the department store in the mall, was having an after Valentine's Day blowout, but sadly Aglaia's savings had been drained in paying a particularly glossy girl.

Instead, she sat lingering over her calculus homework as Tea and Joey's sister, Serenity, sifted through layers of hangers.

"I don't know if I like this," Tea mused as she examined her reflection, a tall brunette in a baby blue mini-dress.

"Try it with that chunky yellow Four Nines belt," Aglaia spoke without looking up.

"This one?"

"And the black beads. . ."

Tea slipped the belt around her mid-waist as Serenity entered the large, tri-mirrored dressing room, very much using her expression to imitate a dry erase board.

For the fifth time in the half hour, she sighed.

"What's the matter, Serenity?"

"Oh, it's nothing." She paused, standing and hooking her hair behind her ear. "It's just. . . I've just been thinking about Mai a lot lately."

Tea and Aglaia both looked up.

"It's been getting to Joey, too. I can see it," she confessed as she studied the pattern on the carpet.

"Who is. . ." Aglaia began, but stopped.

"I know," Tea again sighed. "I can see it in him. When he thinks no one's looking."

"I don't like seeing my big brother that way. . ."

"None of us do."

"She said she'd come back, but. . ."

"It's been over a year." She ran her fingers through her hair. "The last time she was heard of was over in China. Dueling with Vivian Wong, or something. Ever since, I really don't know."

"Who is Mai?"

The two forlorn girls turned to Aglaia.

"Mai. . ." Tea began but turned her eyes to Serenity. Serenity didn't look up.

"Mai Valentine. She was a friend of ours, but kind of. . . went back on us a little. She saw what she did wrong, though, and said she'd come back after she 'found herself'. She and my big brother were so close. . ."

As given, Aglaia had no idea how to respond as her two friends turned their eyes downward.

"I. . . I'm sorry," was her choice.

"Don't be," Tea brushed it off. "She'll come back. . . someday."

"Yeah," Serenity smiled, this time with a bitter twist. "You never know. Maybe we'll see her soon."

Tea nodded but furrowed her brows. She wasn't quite that ludicrous.

Then, Aglaia put some thoughts to love. She became preoccupied and shut her math book.

_'I bet Aphrodite wouldn't let things like this happen."_

But she threw away that thought as soon as it came.

* * *

Aglaia went home that night and googled Mai Valentine.

Ten digit result. Impressive.

Here and there, Duel Monsters tournaments. Voted favorite female duelist three years running, marketed as "the world's most beautiful duelist", an out-of-nowhere sensation, and, most interestingly, a fashion icon in lace and purple leather.

Mai looked more like an Aphrodite with persuasive eyes and invisible violet sparkles all around than the vision she had seen in the ring.

Hadn't seen. Hadn't seen. Of course not.

Then she searched Joey Wheeler. . .

Twelve. Wow.

He was known as an underdog who rose to be probably the world's third most famous duelist, which basically blew out all of Aglaia's mind.

Joey? A world champion? She wondered why she hadn't heard of him before, but then realized that she lived underneath a fashion magazine.

She had seen that green jacket somewhere, though. . . possibly a designer item inspired by said underdog.

Out of sheer curiosity, she googled Yuugi-- and didn't care to count the results.

Then Kaiba. . . wow.

Aglaia spent the next two hours reading the articles on the four famous duelists. . . and studying their attire. She found relations to all matter of runway designs, and for that matter, imitating street fashion.

Maybe Duel Monsters was interesting after all. . .

"Aglaia dear?" It could only be Aglaia's mother, knocking the doorway of the room only lit by a gleaming computer screen.

"Yes, mom?"

"I was doing the laundry and found this in the dryer." Kalliope held out the beaten gold ring. "You must have put it in one of your pockets and lost it."

"Oh, yeah. . ." Aglaia nodded blankly.

"Here." The mother entered and tried to put the ring on her daughter's hand. Aglaia resisted and took the ring in her hand.

"Th-- Thank you."

Kalliope gave her daughter a strange look but simply left. For a mother, it felt like her daughter was the one who was leaving.

* * *

Aglaia sat on her bed in deep thought.

It was a state of illogic, trying to decide whether or not to channel the ancient spirit of the goddess Aphrodite. Was it blasphemy even to believe it? The Greek Orthodox would be ashamed of her.

Could she really leave behind her family relic? Could she really forget the promise she made to whatever it was inside the ring? Could she really let herself believe that the ring held such a spirit.

She heard her mother say that any one of the daughters in her family who wore the ring (gemless, symbolizing the search for romance) found happiness and love. Did they do that by coercing with Aphrodite?

Nothing made sense anymore.

No. No! It was ridiculous. She would put on the ring, nothing would happen, it she would have proved to herself that it was only an illusion brought on by stress. Brought on by the stress of getting hit by a car. Of course. Why hadn't she thought of it before.

Almost laughing, Aglaia slipped on the ring and felt most disappointed in herself when she felt herself engulfed in light.

She thought that she was flailing her arms around, trying to escape it, but she had no self realization so she could not be sure.

Like sliding off of a cliff, she fell under.

* * *

"Yes!" Aphrodite exclaimed when she found consciousness. "It's been so long since I've had a physical body."

She immediately sought a mirror.

"Hm. This girl, a mere imitation of me! None of my beauty at all. Oh, well." She tossed her hair that didn't swoosh as gorgeously as she had hoped. "I suppose it will have to do."

She turned to the moonlit window. "Now, lonely lovers of the world, prepare for passion to be rekindled!"

As she burst through the window, breaking it, she thought of all the ballads they would write for her after she was through.

* * *


	11. Incense

**Where?**

**She really doesn't know. . .**

* * *

Walking out the alley, Aphrodite was faced with a bright-eyed beast running towards her on round, black legs. She loudly shouted for it to stop, but it resisted her beauty.

A man from within its metallic head shouted disrespect at her as he sped by.

Obviously, within this mortal entity, she was enable to call upon her full powers.

Touching her face (or rather, her portal's face), she found a strange, thick glass piece. An ugly accessory, she decided, so she tossed them to the side.

For a long while she wandered until she came upon two men standing in a dark alleyway. She called to them, demanding her whereabouts and the closest route to Olympus, but they disregarded her demands and approached with greasy smiles.

Being familiar with the inconveniences of the male mind, Aphrodite realized what they had in mind and also that she could not defend herself.

Running quickly through the forest of rectangular stone mountains, she came upon a bright, populated avenue lit by glowing bulbs (presumably captured nymphs).

"Boy!" she shouted to the first mortal she saw that she could overpower if need be.

"Me?" he turned around surprised.

"Of course you. Now tell me, child, how might I find a way to Olympus from here?"

"Uh, what?"

"Mount Olympus! Where is Mount Olympus from here?"

"Where? Uh-- listen, lady, I gotta be somewhere, and I don't have time for--"

As he turned away, she grabbed him by his jacket.

"Listen to me, insolent child! I may not appear it, but I am in fact the goddess Aphrodite! Daughter of the ocean! Lover of Ares! Empress of beauty! Light of passion for the world! Commander for the forces of love! Now, I demand that you give me instructions to Mount Olympus from this love-forsaken land or so help me Zeus--"

"Help! Help!! This lady's crazy!" He yanked out of Aphrodite's grasp, which weakened in her shock.

Could ignore a demand relating anything to the sacred castle of the gods? Any other would surely fall to his knees in praise on the off chance that she told the truth. What could such a thing mean?

The cogs in her mind spun ever so slowly until she came to a conclusion that pleased her, but in a very different way, displeased her greatly.

It could only be that in her absence, when there was no means of supplying love to the world, the reign of the gods fell?!

Without her essential guidance, the Mount Olympus had fallen!! Nothing else could explain such ignorance.

But then, what had become of her crowning glory, the power of love?

Her dilemma became cataclysmic.

Without a sex drive, how had mankind survived?!!

She began sprinting down the sidewalk, haphazardly knocking down civilians.

She looked through the clear walls. She saw nothing. Nothing but strange devices. New-age utensils, useless appliances.

At last she came to a gleaming display. She was unable to read to the inscriptions, and was unfamiliar with what she saw, but knew that it marked something. She still had that sense, and she knew that this place marked hope in her trek through a foreign world.

Grabbing the arm of a passer-by, she demanded, "What is this place?"

The expression of said passer-by turned to utter bafflement.

"Answer me!"

"It-- It looks like an antique shop or something. I don't know. Let go of me!"

Aphrodite complied and proceeded to press through the glass that looked least attached. A ringing noise sounded as she did, and she abruptly looked upward, only to see a small bell.

"Heathenous mortal traditions," she mumbled as she entered.

It was a narrow, brightly lit room with burning incense, stacks of books, unlit candles, wooden tables of trinkets, and many, many shelves.

A scrawny woman in glasses looked up at her with huge black eyes.

For more than a moment, they stared.

"How dare you look upon me with such insolence," regarded Aphrodite, as she promptly humph-ed and began examining the store's strange contents with a contemptuous eye.

Seeing an estranged idol of gold, Aphrodite spoke up to the store owner who was blatantly analyzing her.

"What is this little fat golden thing? Some kind of nymph figure?"

Aphrodite turned to the small woman whose jaw fell slightly ajar.

"Well?" She became impatient.

"He is the Buddha," the woman answered in a distinct but unidentifiable accent.

"Who is the Buddha?"

Again, the woman looked taken aback in her blank manner.

"Who is Buddha?! When I ask you a question, impudent woman, you answer me!"

The two other browsers in the store turned to the slight scene.

Making a disregarding expression, the woman replied cooly, "Buddha is god. And it seems to me that you are the impudent one."

"Me? Impudent?!! How _dare_ you speak to me in such a manner! I ought to force you to bastardize fifty children until you have no sanity left in you! I ought to force all of your family into incest! I ought to curse you and every infidel of your native land into eternal solitude!!" Aphrodite's face shook with red anger.

Catching her breath, she stared into the woman's raised eyebrows.

"Wait. . . you mean to tell me that this Buddha is god?"

"Yes," she firmly nodded, still stunned into indignant silence.

"So I've found it. Now I see. This Buddha overthrew the gods." Aphrodite loudly gestured her words with her hands. "No, you. Take me to this Buddha, wherever he resides, for I require to speak with him."

"I cannot."

Aphrodite gave the woman an incredulous look, then resolved.

"Oh. I see. You are but mortal, and therefore cannot enter the realm of the gods. So be it then. Take me to a temple to Buddha, then, so that I might channel him."

"You think that you can channel Buddha?" The wide-eyed woman now wore a dubious smile.

"Of course I can. I'm a goddess, of course," she scoffed.

"You are, are you?"

"Of course I am! Why else would I say so?"

"Well, what kind of goddess are you?" The store keeper indulged the loon.

"I am Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, desire, and man's passion--" Said goddess began a speech that sounded like it had been written down before by some great poet, but she was interrupted.

"But a goddess for whom?" the woman inquired.

"What do you mean to say?"

"A goddess of what religion? Of what belief system?"

"You are confused, silly woman. There is only what is. There is no way to disbelieve what is."

Aphrodite looked into the woman's dubiously wide eyes, and she became deeply offended.

"Well-- well! What would your Buddha think if he knew that you condoned other gods? This doubt is unacceptable! He will surely smite you."

The woman chuckled knowingly as she reached to something behind her in the rows of shelves, and Aphrodite slammed her hands down on the glass counter.

"Stop this facade! Speak to me what you mean, woman, or I will be the one that smites you!"

Turning back, the glass-ed woman laid down a thick, paper-bound book with frayed edges.

"Take a look at this," she enticed.

"What is it? I cannot--" Aphrodite looked for the most flattering word possible. "--interpret this pagan language."

"This book is called _The Deep World_. There are so many different relating beliefs and interpretations that no one earthly man can discern the nature of the Universe. This book was written by a wise man who saw all of the opposing religions, but also saw their similarities. It elaborates on this confusion of yours. You can't comprehend more than you've been taught, can you? This is truly a deep world. It isn't something that can be simplified."

The apparent goddess's expression displayed aggravated uncertainty, and the woman read it with a suppressed smile.

"Then. . . who are _you_?" Aphrodite wondered.

"Kohaku Aya. It is a pleasure to meet you. . . Aphrodite." She knew better than to offer her hand to shake.

"Well then, Kohaku Aya, you will read this book to me, I assume? I expect no less. If I must live in this estranged world then obviously I must understand it." Her taught, prideful face examined Aya with an upturned chin. "Don't underestimate me, mortal woman."

The chuckle of a world-weary woman. "That might take a while, don't you think?"

Aphrodite took in the breath for speaking but found nothing to say.

"How about this, Aphrodite. It seems to me that you have nowhere else to go, considering the. . . present state of Olympus. So would you like to come here, if ever you find yourself. . . existing? These conversations are very. . . interesting."

The only two other visitors left then, whispering something about insanity.

Thinking harder than she normally would, Aphrodite finally crossed her arms.

"Don't bother begging. I'll come, I'll come. But you will regard me as great goddess, do you understand?"

Chuckling, Aya walked down the thin counter side to the back of the store, expecting said great goddess to follow.

"Unn, never mind it! Stupid mortal witchling. . ."

Because the goddess didn't comply with the subtlety, Aya asked that she follow her to the back of the store.

After some immortal complaints, she complied.

"What is it, mortal woman?" For a moment the goddess paused. "Aya?"

"These are special smelling salts." Crudely labeled stacks of boxes were shoved into the corner of the room.

Squinting, Aya murmured to herself, "Jasmine, eucalyptus, ginseng. . ."

"Smelling salts? We are both awake, foolish woman."

"These are special kinds of salt. Crushed crystals, they are believed to have supernatural properties."

"What do you mean by 'they are believed'? They either do or don't."

"I've never before had a chance to try them."

Silence.

"Aniseed salt. Here it is." Aya took a fistful of the assorted herbs and salt.

She handed it to Aphrodite. They shared a look.

Realizing that there wasn't much more to be done, Aphrodite was ready to take a whiff of what very well might be her ticket home. (Never bothering to ask what the salt would do to her, of course. She was thinking enough as was.)

"But wait, Aya. Tell me, please, what has happened to love in the new world culture? Does love survive?"

Aya looked to the ground and then again at Aphrodite.

Almost reassuring herself, she replied, "You'll see."

Nodding, Aphrodite took a hesitant whiff, a second deeper whiff, and then a last attempted whiff before she fell to the ground. Aya caught her before she hit.

* * *

Blinking, Aglaia awoke with a hammered head, sitting the back seat of an unfamiliar car.

Where was she? She tried to wonder but couldn't. Her mind was too consumed in fatigue.

Maybe she forgot what she was doing. That must have been it.

Everything could wait 'til later. She felt like slept-walked ten miles. She needed sleep. . .

* * *

Kohaku Aya looked back at the sleeping teenager whose eyes fluttered ever so slightly, and then were again set still.

"It's a good thing that you had your student identification on you, Aglaia. . ."

* * *

Earlier that night, Kalliope went to check on her daughter, only to find that she was nowhere to be found.

Calling the police for the second time that month, she and her son worriedly tossed around possibilities as her husband Hiroto drove around in search.

Around three o'clock in the morning, she heard a knock on the door and ran to answer it with the feet of a mother bear.

The darkness only allowed the sight of a car being rushed into and driven away, along with her daughter laying unconscious.

"Aglaia," she asked the inert girl, "have you been drinking?"


	12. Living

**I apologize to all of those who were confused by the religious undertones in the last chapter. . . but there will be more to come. Just watch closely, because there is a point (for there is a plot), and I'll make a point to avoid preference.**

**That being said, enjoy your crappy fan fiction. :D (and for those who grow impatient, there _will_ be Kaiba in the next chapter)**

* * *

Looking back on it, Aglaia couldn't remember being grounded before.

Maybe for forgetting chores, or not doing homework. But never for getting drunk.

Did she get drunk? She couldn't remember.

She woke up the next morning with a massive migraine and her parents ordaining all sorts of punishment.

They lectured her on her behavior and interrogated her mercilessly, but she was far too drowsy to respond.

Because Hiroto couldn't be late for his date with the Kaiba Corp. cubicle, and Kalliope was deeply required at the hospital, they allowed Aglaia to stay home from school to recuperate and let Kenichi stay home to take care of her. (Though he would never let anyway know, he was very grateful for this.)

When Aglaia found herself able to function as an average human again, her brother went straight to questioning her.

"Why'd you do it?"

"Do what? . . ." she droned as she poured herself a glass of orange juice, but dropped the carton and spilt it all over the floor.

She took a moment to stare at it, then nonchalantly sat down in the kitchen island to sip from the half-empty glass.

"Go out, get drunk, whatever the hell you did. It's those new friends of those, isn't it? That Muto group."

"What? No, no. . ." Aglaia thought that she ought to fight for her friends' honor more fervently but she wasn't in the mood to do much fighting right then. . .

"Fame must get into their heads. And that Wheeler guy never struck me as a good guy."

"It's not them," she whined into her hands.

"Then what?" He was quickly losing his apathetic older brother facade.

"I don't know. . ."

"You don't know?!"

"I don't remember. . . "

"Oh. Is that it."

"I really don't. Why don't you trust me?"

"Because you showed up on the porch last night passed out!"

Aglaia's mind flashed to the neighbors who she was sure overheard them. But in this neighborhood, it wasn't much of a surprise.

"I don't know what happened. . ."

"What _do_ you know!?" He threw his arms above his head.

Aglaia stared at him for a moment, finally summoning some emotion.

"I'm sorry. . ." He put his hand to his face. "But really, what do you know?"

"Last night, I was on the computer, and then Mom came and said something to me . . ."

Images from the seemingly uneventful night before began to appear from a cloud in her mind. The wind blew and thing became clearer. Her ring.

"Then I went up to my room. . ." Aglaia watched Kenichi watching her for every detail. "I lied down on my bed. . ."

He nodded slowly.

"And I don't remember."

Kenichi's eyebrows twitched slightly. Had something in her expression given her away?

He walked out of the room, dissatisfied.

She didn't hear what he said on his way out. She didn't think that she wanted to.

* * *

Later that night, after an obvious discussion over Aglaia between her parents and brother, said parents called her in for long, long, long talk of a given nature.

They eased her punishment ever so slightly, allowing her freedom in a month from the doubt, and, what they all had been expecting, Aglaia began to cry from emotional overload.

Kalliope gave her disciplinary husband a pleading look. He reluctantly nodded, and she went straight to comforting her daughter.

* * *

Aya Kohaku pondered the nature of modern day drug use.

If the strange girl who had visited the night before was under the influence of any peculiar substances, then she would have fallen into a deep sleep, and then into sobriety.

At least, that was one of the effects.

The conundrum was that the second effect was to free a mortal human from the effects of any. . . supernatural being.

But still, no one appeared the next night.

* * *

The next day at school, things for Aglaia were extremely. . . difficult.

"What do you mean you can't hang out after school anymore?" Joey questioned.

"I'm grounded. . ." the poor girl mumbled into her desk.

"For how long?" asked Tea.

"About a month. . ."

"What for?" Yugi submitted, but a sad look from the asked turned him away.

"I'm not quite sure. . ."

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it," the brunette girl eased.

Aglaia nodded.

"Anyway. . ." Joey threw off the awkwardness. "So Yug, wanna show me that new card'a yours?"

"Oh, you mean the one Professor Hawkins sent?"

"That's the one!"

And as the boys immersed themselves in Duel Monsters, Tea examined Aglaia.

Something was most definitely up.

"So. . . it looks like Kimura isn't here today," Tea informed Aglaia.

"Oh-- yeah. I think there's a bug going around. A lot of people are missing."

"Yeah. Aisha is out, too, and Keiji wasn't here after sixth period."

"Seto isn't here either. . ." Aglaia added.

"Who?"

"I mean, um, Kaiba. . ."


	13. Heart

As part of her punishment, Aglaia was forced to assist with her mother at the hospital. Her mother was a nurse, so did that make her co-nurse?

She didn't know, but it was worthy punishment, as most of the work was dismally dull. Aglaia's basic familiarity with first aid made volunteering a part time job.

She had grown up knowing exactly what to do with boo-boos and having all sorts of medical jargon thrown at her by her ever-loving mother when she got hurt.

"Don't worry, sweetie, it won't hurt long. The endorphins and enkephalins will come to the boo-boo from your brain and make it all better!"

Aglaia was snatched up out of her memories when Doctor Mikuru woke her from her trance of massaging old Mr. Asahina, an unwanted task.

"Aglaia, I've got to make a house call. Would you come with me?" The girl nodded instantly before he added, "I've already informed your mother."

Nodding still as he turned his back, Aglaia set down the massaging cream on Mr. Asahina's bedside table, as he had fallen into a deep sleep.

After gathering the necessary items, Aglaia and Dr. Mikuru loaded into a surprisingly expensive car, chauffeur and all.

First things first, Aglaia spoke, "Doctor Mikuru, I thought that doctors didn't make house calls anymore."

"Not usually. But it seems that especially . . . favorable patients can afford such things."

"Who is it that we're going to see?"

"We're on our way to Kaiba Manor. Stay on your best behavior."

Aglaia demonstrated mannerful silence on the rest of the car ride.

* * *

After arriving at the Kaiba mansion, the medicinal pair was greeted by a hunched nanny-looking man with glasses and stressed-looking young boy with wild hair.

They took Aglaia and Dr. Mikuru through the labyrinth of halls and it seemed unlikely that with all of the maids and attendants that there was a doctor amongst them.

"Here we are," the man cracked slightly the oak double doors that looked quite regal indeed.

The three others followed. Aglaia noted the young boy looking particularly bothered.

"Mr. Kaiba has been dreadfully ill for the past few days. . . it doesn't seem to be the standard cold. Could you examine him?" Almost an inquiry as to the doctor's skills.

Aglaia wasn't sure how long Doctor Mikuru prodded the figure in the bed as he twisted and sniffled.

"It seems to me he has a very distinct variation of the Type A flu. Don't worry, it's not H1N1. I'll need to go back to the hospital to test this blood sample, just to be sure. Then a twice-daily implement of Tamiflu should do him good. For now, I have these pills. Aglaia, would you mind watching him for me? Tend to him when he wakes up."

The man followed the doctor as they left the room, shutting the door, leaving only Aglaia sitting beside his bed, the boy analyzing the nurse, and Seto Kaiba with reddened face in the moonlight.

"Don't worry. . ." Aglaia spoke gently after several moments. She wiped Seto's swollen nose and put some medicinal chap stick on his sick lips.

"What?"

"D-- don't worry. He-- he'll be okay."

In the corner of her eye, Aglaia saw the young boy scrutinizing her. He saw that she was unsure and wondered if she knew he was himself.

"I know."

Again, silence.

"Wha--- what's your name?" Aglaia whispered after a long while.

"It's Mokuba," he answered after a while.

A moment passed.

"Is he your brother?"

"Yeah. . ."

It would surely be a long night.

"I have a brother. . . a brother, you know."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. . ."

Again, the moon was loudest thing in the room.

"He-- he's a little bit older than me, but-- not by much. . . how-- how old are you?"

"Fourteen." Mokuba saw himself inclined to answer.

Flashing him a second's look, Aglaia stared again down at Kaiba. Mokuba honestly looked much younger.

"Like I said. . . you don't have to worry." But she knew that he would, anyhow. Aglaia understood.

A near hour's hush passed and it became apparent that Dr. Mikuru was not returning anytime soon.

Mokuba had fallen asleep on the a lush armchair in the corner and the moon came to illuminate Seto Kaiba's sleeping face.

Albeit the running nose, chapped lips, and inflated nose, after studying Seto thoroughly, Aglaia came to decide him as the picture of Adonis.

His stony features and pale complexion set to epitome Aphrodite's lover.

Several thoughts later, Aglaia found herself blushing deeply, glad that he couldn't see her.

Seto, she thought, might be considered very handsome if he didn't petrify with his presence.

Funny. Only several weeks ago the man lying below her was a scary story coming to life for her older brother, and now he was pathetically sick patient in need of her care.

How fickle, she thought, Fate could be.

The night took over and Aglaia found her head rested on the bed beside him.

This time, she didn't need any smelling herbs to fall into a deep sleep.

* * *

It must have been around 3:00, Seto's inner clock decided, as he woke in the darkness.

Pushing past a warm object lying next to him (probably a cat), Seto shuffled towards his bathroom for glass of water.

Trembling, he grabbed a glass from beside his sink and ran water into it.

It never crossed his mind that he didn't own a cat.

* * *

Sitting up slowly, Aglaia was nearly blinded by the cream light from the open bathroom door.

A long, ruffled figure stood through the door.

Almost falling, Aglaia found herself and just about threw herself into the doorway.

"Se-- you. . ."

He turned with swollen shock.

"What are you doing here?" Not _who are you_. Let it be noted.

"I. . ." she wiped her eyes, feeling a sort of sand in them. "I'm your nurse."

All sorts of questions might have come to his mind, but none came out. Kaiba was too sore to care.

"Here. . ." Aglaia muttered. She shambled around in the bedroom for a moment. "I'm supposed to give this to you, when-- when you wake up."

Kaiba noticed that the girl seemed especially jittery as she poured two pills into his open hand.

"Swallow them, and. . ."

He complied.

After gulping several throat-fulls of water, Seto turned to see Aglaia staring at him.

She shook her head. Her impression of Seto Kaiba was conflicting, indeed.

As was his of her.

"You oughta. . ." Aglaia again rubbed her eyes. "You ought to get some sleep."

Seto promptly hmph-ed.

"I could say the same for you."

It did not go unnoticed that Kaiba strode over to his younger brother, did something in the darkness that she could not identify.

They both took their places again and waited for morning, neither fully asleep.


	14. Talk

**DISCLAIMER!: I do not own Yugioh, Aphrodite, or Buddha. Sorry, kiddies.**

* * *

All Aglaia could really think about was the morning breath taste in her mouth as Doctor Mikuru, now off duty, came to pick her up on orders from her mother.

He apologized continually for not returning to the Kaiba Mansion, as there was fire in a downtown building that resulted in high demand for doctors, some such excuse. . . the young girl was far too drowsy to hear.

* * *

After that rippling night at the Kaiba Mansion, things returned to the expected monotony for Aglaia and her family.

Every so often, Kenichi would do or say something cheeky that would land him a detention. At school, Tea introduced a certain gorgeous Mr. Devlin as their classmate and friend who, as a CEO of his own company, had been on a business trip in Europe for the past two months.

An interesting school, indeed, she decided.

Aside from that, tedious shifts at the hospital, a project for sewing her own dress that she had taken on, and unreadable, near invisible glances from a confusing Kaiba, the strangeness in Aglaia's world subsided.

She kept her ring hidden in her drawer.

* * *

The morning that her grounding was finished, Kalliope came in with a collective stack of fashion magazines at least a foot high.

The sun became even brighter when Tea made plans for Serenity and Aglaia to go see _Heavenly Forest_ with Aoi Miyazaki on its opening night that Sunday.

For the rest of the day, excitement for the school dance in a week became apparent throughout the class.

Joey and Tristan were intent on beating each other with finding a prettier date (based on a challenge from Duke, who had girls falling to the floor for him).

Tea had been asked several times but turned down every one.

Both Yugi and Aglaia were afraid to attend (given their similar dancing abilities), but the others wouldn't have it.

Aglaia thought that it was all she had to worry about.

* * *

Aside from stress with bills, an influenza outbreak in the hospital, and approaching crow's feet, Kalliope's life had been generally peaceful until she noticed that her daughter wasn't wearing the ring she had been given as a family heirloom.

Was it not stylish enough? But Aglaia had never been stingy with clothing before, even with her vivid interest in fashion.

As the young girl slept, her mother came into her room and went into her drawers, putting the laundry away. She found the ring tucked underneath a pile of clothing.

After storing away the folded piles, Kalliope gently slipped the the ring onto her daughter's finger and shut the door quietly behind her.

* * *

Aglaia found herself on top of a cliff, overlooking a beach at sunset. She was staring at the back of someone's head who was sitting on the sand below.

She had the aching premonition that she loved him.

Maybe she could stand up, find a way down, go see him. . .

"Foolish mortal!"

And Aglaia found herself shoved off and out of her dream.

* * *

Waking up, Aglaia found herself sleeping walking down a city sidewalk.

How she had gotten out of the house without her knowledge seemed like a good question, but she was too drowsy to answer it.

"Where am I going?" she instead asked aloud.

The people around her, watching her hunched posture and drowsy swagger, couldn't give her an answer.

Her body seemed to move on it's own accord, without any consultation from her mind or conscious judgment.

"Stop," she meekly ordered, but her legs didn't comply.

When the young girl's sentience came complete, she found herself fighting her own body. Each step she took she tried to hold back, but her body was intent.

Was this what had happened before?

Aglaia then noticed the ring on her finger.

It made sense of things, but at the same time, sense of nothing at all.

* * *

Finally, when the balls of her bare feet were nearly torn, Aglaia's independent legs turned and pressed her body against the door of shop that looked as though it sold antique figures and ancient books.

In compliance, Aglaia opened the door with her still obedient arms.

To her surprise, the skinny, wide-eyed eyed woman at the counter smiled upon her entry.

"So you return."

* * *

After numerous explanations (and even more skeptical answers), Aglaia resigned herself to believing the strange story that Aya Kohaku, the woman at the counter told her (as soon as her self-governing legs began to stomp angrily).

In the back of the empty shop (where the woman seemed to live), Aglaia twiddled her thumbs in wait of some "cure" at a table that seemed to once have a design etched into it.

Maybe her judgment wasn't at its peak, but she really had no other clue what to do.

From under a veil to an ominously candlelit room, Aya came out with a dusty purple cloth.

"Y-you-- can help get this-- thing-- out of me?" Aglaia rebellious foot again stomped in anger.

"We'll see."

This answer deeply dissatisfied the possessed young girl.

Sitting down beside her, Aya took the purple cloth off of its package to reveal an age-stained vanity mirror.

"Look deeply into this," the old woman ordered.

Obeying, Aglaia saw her frazzled bed head waves and baggy sleeping shirt. Then, to her shock, her visage began to transform.

"I've found this to have certain mystical properties, primarily for meditation. But it should work in this situation. . . Have you ever seen your own soul?" the old woman flippantly inquired.

Her unsure pout became a lip glossed smirk, and her t-shirt became an orange halter top that fitted too well for her to believe.

"Well?" the visage spoke confidently, phlegmatically. "You can see me, can't you? Doesn't that make me real?"

"Wha-- what?"

Aglaia would have dropped the mirror if Aya hadn't taken it from her.

"Now, try this." Aya aimed the mirror at the girls obstinately restless legs.

The reflection soon became the unmistakable picture of the goddess Aphrodite.

"Release me, you rotten imp!"

"There you are, goddess," Aya greeted, as though speaking with an old friend.

"Ah, woman! You can surely reason with this child. If she had her way, I'd be locked away for the rest of eternity!"

"I-- I don't understand!" Aglaia fretted. It was all becoming too much for her.

"Please listen to me, Aglaia." Aya's huge black eyes bore deeply into Aglaia's strangely brown and purple ones. "This may seem very odd to you, but I assure, there are oddities such as these. It's sad that a young girl like you is caught in the midst of one like this, but it seems that you don't have a choice. You must accept it and allow me to help you."

"But-- why would you want to?"

Old woman Kohaku surprised Aglaia by chuckling.

"I specialize in abnormal things such as these. And I'm no longer in my golden years. This kind of adventure might be all I have left."

The mere child slowly nodded.

"Do not ignore me, insolent mortals! I will not stand for this!"

"Calm yourself, Aphrodite," Aya instructed.

"How dare you try and order me around! I have had enough of this disrespect!"

Aglaia began to think that yelling was all that was within the goddess's capability.

"I will help you if you cooperate with me."

A momentary silence passed.

"I am listening."

With a repressed smile, Aya went to a counter in the corner began fishing through shelves.

After a long while, she came out with a shiny silver ring.

"Wha. . ." Aglaia began, but her voice fell out.

Comfortably seating herself next to Aglaia, as though they would be there for a while, Aya finally began to explain her tiny trinket.

"This," she spoke, "is the Lotus Sutra Ring of Meditation."

Silence followed, but then, Aya really didn't expect her to know what that was.

"It was said to have been used Siddartha Gautama, the first incarnation of Buddha, for separation of entities in one's soul. It was once used for meditation, to separate the spiritual dark and light, but I've thought over this while you were gone. It seems that it would adequately separate Aphrodite from your consciousness."

The connected two remained silent, for neither could fathom the meaning of such a thing.

Aya slowly slipped the ring onto Aglaia's pinky ring, right beside the ring of Aphrodite.

Aglaia closed her eyes, expecting to be engulfed, but nothing happened.

She opened her eyes to see Aya's lips pursed.

"Well. . . I suppose that meditation is necessary."

"Meditation? How?"

"Come in here." The old shop owner went again behind the curtain veil.

* * *

It was around 1:30 A.M. when Aglaia gave up on finding her "inner peace".

Whatever that meant.

After Aya supplied her with many chamomile teas, smelling salts, and entrancing music, Aglaia still found that she was plagued with worries of her mother finding her gone, of the dance that she would surely embarrass herself at, and of the fact that an ancient divine entity made its home in her body.

Rubbing her wrinkled temples as though they were infected with poison ivy, Aya was out of ideas.

"Just. . . try to find your happy place," she suggested in resignation.

In compliance, Aglaia closed her eyes (intent on silencing the shouts that would surely come from the love goddess as soon as she recovered control).

What did she want in life? What would make her truly happy? It was a question that she had not asked herself before.

She imagined herself as the confident girl in the orange halter she had seen in the mirror.

_Her name is Aglaia Atsuko and she is a revered icon in the fashion world. All of her sketches are world-famous lines, and at least ten shops in the Shibuya 109 building are for her various design labels._

A trance fell over her as she indulged all of her desires.

_Many companies ask her to model, but she sticks to designing. . . she attends the most prestigious dinners and dances with grace before covetous billionaires. . . she is married to her dream man. . ._

Then the question came to her, what was her dream man?

_He's--_

Aglaia was awakened by powerful presence and opened her eyes to see the translucent image of the goddess Aphrodite.

"I have my own form!" she rejoiced.

"It worked, Ms. Kohaku!" Aglaia relished to the half-asleep store owner.

"What?" she woke with a start.

"Don't you see her?"

Aphrodite turned to Aya and demanded that she see her, but the elderly woman could not.

"I think. . . I think that I understand," Aya mused. "The Siddartha Buddha was said to have seen an image of Mara, the Hindu devil, after long meditation to find a way to destroy his demons. It might be that the Lotus Sutra is meant to the portray the divided soul for only the divider to see."

Though this made no sense to Aglaia (or Aphrodite, for that matter), the two decided to accept it, as they could clearly see each other.

"Now, girl, allow me the use of your body."

After thinking it over with a pouting countenance, Aglaia nodded and put it in her mind. It was bound to happen.

It was as soon as her eyes closed that she found herself feeling specifically light.

Aglaia looked at her hands and saw through them to the floor.

"It's worked!" Aphrodite shouted as she looked at her fleshy hands.

Aglaia then scanned her own body, to see some very distinct changes. For one, she was taller, and her proportions seemed far more desirable. Her (or rather, Aphrodite's) hair seemed to shine, and fall in tame waves.

"Look at me!" Aphrodite shouted to the mirror on the wall as she admired herself. "I have my form again!" She sounded very much like a post-pregnant woman after two weeks of pilates.

"Now, it is my duty to bring love back to this wholly mortal love!"

"Aph--" Aglaia began, but froze when the fiercely present goddess turned to her.

"What is it, child?" the goddess demanded, upset that her joy was disrupted.

Old woman Aya seemed very much to be enjoying the show.

"Aph-- Aph-- Aph-- Aphro--"

"Speak up, girl!" Aphrodite demanded. She followed this with a reminiscent slap across the cheek, which was strangely painful. Her patience wouldn't survive five minutes, let alone five centuries.

It seemed that to be translucent, Aglaia wouldn't feel the slap, but then, the two were connected at the soul.

Aglaia might have thought about this, but she was consumed in passion that was uncharacteristic of her.

"G-give me my body back!"

"**What**!!?"

Aya should have been grateful not to hear such a scream.

Before she could rant robustly over how she had waited centuries to return to her love and repair the loveless world, Aglaia cut her off.

"You-- You can do that later, but if I-- if we don't return home soon then my parents ground me again! You-- You can fix the world tomorrow!"

* * *

Needless to say, Aphrodite was more than reluctant to again surrender her embodiment.

After many arguments (that seemed to be one-sided from the outside), Aphrodite's passion subsided and decided to work in the morning would be more convenient (as logic was not her strong point and she could only surrender to such a thing).

Taking control of her conscious, Aglaia found herself nearly losing it again to exhaustion.

She prayed to God on the car ride home that Aya gave her that her parents hadn't checked on her empty bed.

She was still a Christian, however conflicted her beliefs had become.

As Ms. Kohaku dropped her off in the alleyway by the back of her apartment, Aglaia thought about how brave she had been to confront the ages old goddess.

It was unlike her, she realized.

_Maybe it's that girl from the mirror, _she mused as she drifted into a sweaty, much needed sleep.

_I want to be like her._

* * *

_[Love it or hate it? I honestly found this chapter boring to write, but it was necessary to elaborate on the plot (that will come together fell, I promise). It'll all be worth it, soon. I promise. In the meantime, I wanna know: what do you want? Mokuba/Aglaia friendship? Kaiba fluff(sooner rather than later)? Aglaia to realize her potential? Aphrodite to diva out again? Or maybe Aphrodite could learn to be humble and understand love for what it is? For me to make sense of the religious themes? Let me know. :D Oh, and in case you're wondering, there is no such thing as the Lotus Sutra ring. That's a temple. Means "blossoming love", or something along those lines. Ironic, eh?"]_


	15. Potential

**_[DISCLAIMER: Screw the rules, I own Kaiba! . . . or not.]_**

* * *

**In the Atsuko Townhouse**

* * *

While Aglaia slept, she allowed Aphrodite to use her body to do the "research" on modern day love that she was so intent upon.

This basically consisted of Aglaia pulling up romance movie clips and syrupy picture GIFs on her computer and teaching Aphrodite how to scroll through them, which was far easier said than done. ("It is not a mouse. You are a fool!")

Every day after school, Aphrodite would impatiently rush Aglaia into giving her control, so that she could examine whatever amorous conundrum she was battling with at the time.

Rather, Aglaia would continue sewing the dress she had been working on.

Aphrodite commented on her skill being not half that of Arachne, and not a fourth that of Athena.

After a few moments, she amended, "At least sew something of value. How will you please the gods with something as simple as that?"

"It'll be beautiful," Aglaia murmured, more to herself than to the goddess as she stitched almost frantically, ignoring her bulging calluses and pricked fingers. "It'll be beautiful."

* * *

**Once Upon a Strange Night**

* * *

On the bus ride home that night from the mall, Aglaia found again that she would have to give a talk to Aphrodite.

The goddess had been mostly mellow up until Saturday night.

"What do you think?" Tea spun around, taking the short red flowing with her.

"You look amazing," Serenity cooed, as much like dove as anyone Aglaia had met.

The goddess' vessel nodded in agreement.

"It'll be good for dancing, too," Tea convinced herself as she continued to swish in the sheer fabric.

"Now I feel a little overdressed," Serenity giggled to herself, self-consciously smoothing out her long lavender gown.

"Don't worry. Tristan will be dressed up, too," Tea assured, to which Serenity blushed deeply.

"Who-- who said I'm going with Tristan?"

Tea stared a moment. "Oh, my mistake, I just thought, you know, that he asked you."

"It's okay," Serenity mumbled as she hid her pink-ening face with her dress as she took it off for purchase.

"Aren't you going to get anything, Aglaia?" Tea quickly changed the subject.

"No, I've already got a dress."

"All right then."

Later that night, the three went to see their planned movie, Heavenly Forest. It had gotten rocket-ship reviews from all of the critics as being the best pure love movie in years.

As the girls watched (in a see of other girls, as scarce males), Aglaia found herself with a sleepy tingling, as though her head (a radio) was tuning itself.

A voice came on vaguely, as it always did, getting louder and clearer as it came.

_"What a blessed love! Surely a work of wonder. My son Eros must still be about!"_

Aglaia did her best to ignore the voice. At first it was easy, until the angst-filled, obligatory conflict became evident.

_"What?! If the boy truly loved her, then would he not cross oceans for her?! How can he simply surrender her and shy away! Take her from that liar, foolish boy, or die alone!"_

Beside Aglaia sat Serenity, who was reacting emotionally to every plot's turn, and Tea, who did the same on a more subtle level.

It wasn't until they heard her screaming that they turned and saw something wrong.

"If you love her go after her!" Aglaia shouted in a voice that was not her own.

She immediately slammed her palms over her mouth in mortification.

But still, the words "foolish boy" came out.

"Take her back" was muffled through her hands, but the shouting didn't stop until her disobedient body was dragged out of the theater by two ushers.

Serenity and Tea followed the rear, looking acutely dismayed.

"Why did you do that?" Tea demanded as Serenity simply pursed her lips in dissatisfaction.

"I-- I'm sorry!" Aglaia bowed her head down to hip level. Her voice was that of a mouse. "I-- I've got to go!"

And with that, she ran to the bus stop without turning back.

* * *

**In The Atsuko Townhouse**

* * *

Sunday was movie night.

Like waring countries convening for the Olympics, the Atsuko family allowed themselves an evening of peace every weekend.

"I'll never understand this," Hiroto decided to his son Kenichi.

"Come on, Dad. It's not that hard. You've just got to watch your attack and defense points, keep score of your life points, and--" Kenichi Atsuko droned on in an attempt to educate his father in the ways of Duel Monsters.

Kalliope popped popcorn and Aglaia coiled up on the couch with the latest copy of Vivi.

"Ooh, good news!" Kalliope tittered as she entered the dark living room, filling it with the smell of butter.

Kenichi instinctively groaned and his father slapped him over the head(with no malice at all).

"I've found us a new church!"

The rest of the family took time to process this thought.

"You see, that check out girl-- Ayaka was her name, we were talking about horoscopes and she says, 'You know, I really don't believe in those things, I'm Christian myself,' and I was so excited! I said to her, I said, 'I'm Christian, too'! And then--" Kalliope continued to drawl on, but Aglaia stared carefully at her ring.

She knew she would have to face this topic someday.

* * *

**Domino High School

* * *

**

"If I was interested in dating," he reestablished, "it wouldn't be with a girl like you."

The girl's hopeful face fell like collapsing building.

It was a warm Monday of spring, and Seto Kaiba was exceedingly annoyed (as per the usual).

_"What makes these girls think these kind of things?"_

"What? Is that it?" Miyuki Kawazaki, the recent transfer from Kyoto, made the mistake that girls who knew Seto would never make.

"That's it," he assured her, straightening his school uniform and continuing down the hall like a moving statue.

"But how can you say that! How can you be so cruel!" The girl made the fatal error of mistaking Kaiba for someone with a warm heart behind a cold exterior, an error many women liked to make.

Seto continued down the hall. Normally he wasn't this remorseless about it and let the girl off easy, but this one was specifically intent.

_"She doesn't get it, does she?"_

"You-- you're an ass hole! At least spare my feelings!"

_"I did," _he thought, _"The first two times." _

"Screw you, then!" Miyuki wiped her face and renounced him.

Kaiba only wondered what made her think anything in the first place, but quickly discarded the thought.

He really didn't care.

* * *

"You-- you know, if you're interested."

Her round face rose like a balloon.

It was a warm Monday of spring, and Aglaia was unusually elated.

_"Can. . . can he be serious?"_

"Um. . . is that a yes or a no?" By the looks of it, as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, Ryou Bakura was taking it as a no.

"No-- no! I mean, uh, no, it's-- it's not a no." Aglaia could feel her face reddening and her ears burning. "I-It's a yes. I-- I would like to-- to--"

"To go to the dance with me?" he smiled sheepishly.

Aglaia nodded stupidly.

"Okay then. I'll see you there, meet you at Hotel Shinagawa-- you know-- where the dance is." He turned on tail and didn't look back.

It didn't occur to her until long after Ryou (just-returned-from-living-in-England-with-his-father Ryou) was gone that before this she had never said a word to him, nor him to her.

* * *

_[Kaiba! For once! Ah, as the story progresses, I assure you there will be more and more Kaiba. Should I just put a big KAIBA sign over the top of every chapter so that you can skip ones without him? Oh, question! Do you think that I should put out longer chapters or shorter, more frequent ones?]_


	16. Day

**The Domino City Mall**

**Rakuten Department Store**

**Young Women's Section**

**March 25th, 2009**

**8:34 P.M.**

* * *

_March 25th ended the when Aglaia's life began._

It was two nights before the school dance and Teá had moved mountains to assure that Aglaia looked good in the dress she and Serenity had picked out for her. The sandals were another battle entirely.

Even now, as Aglaia stood waiting for her mother to check out her clearance goods, she mulled over every fit and flutter of the dark red, square shouldered, for-sale smock. The store was nearly empty then and the mall would be closed soon.

A loud noise then came from in the back changing room.

"What do you mean it _ripped_?! Wait, you can't go! I've gotta find a dress! YOU TRAITORS!"

The woman scanning Kalliope's clothing asked the girl in the cash register over to silence the trouble in the back.

Soon, though, two girls Aglaia recognized from school came through the aisles and left the store with one muttering impatiently.

Out of curiosity and boredom, Aglaia drifted to the dressing rooms and saw Reina pulling her silky hair out as several store clerks scurried around helplessly.

"You mean to tell me that the Liz Lisa dress that I paid so much for in advance just ripped?! _Just ripped?!!!_"

The employees surrounding offered anything they could, but nothing sufficed.

"The only things left are the rejects!! What can I do!? Everything else is hideous or too expensive, I only have so much money!"

Reina began mumbling angrily to herself and the employees looked to one another, collectively sighed, and began putting away the clothes all strewn about.

Aglaia had a striking thought as her eyes flashed to the "reject rack" behind the repairs counter in the back of the dressing room.

She approached the off-white peasant dress that had caught her eye. It was torn on the side and reeked of last season, but. . . it could work. Scanning the desk for anything needle or thread-like, she invaded the sewing kit and sat down on a stool with the dress.

"Um, excuse me," one sales clerk tried to pardon. "Miss, the store is about to close."

"I-- I know. . . just give me a minute."

Reina spotted Aglaia and shouted, "What the hell are you doing here?!", obviously not pleased that anyone saw her in this state.

Discontented with the answer of silence, she stomped her way to Aglaia.

"What are you doing?" It took Reina a moment to realize. "Why are you? . . ."

"Helping. . ." Aglaia muttered, not looking up. Her needle moved like an eel in the ocean.

"Get-- get out of here! Nobody needs your help!" Yet, Reina took a moment to analyze the dress. "That thing is ugly, anyway!"

All of the women watched as Aglaia finished hemming the dress and went to the counter. She began searching the drawers.

"Miss, you really need to--" an employee began, but was silenced by Reina, very intent upon Aglaia.

The several women in the room dared not interrupt.

Finding a black lace that suited, Aglaia took to fastening the thin mesh to the top of the dress. In an excruciating twenty minutes, the entire neckline was properly attached.

Kalliope had finished her shopping and came to see her daughter confusedly.

Aglaia then took the affixing a thicker black torchon lace to the end of the dress.

It might have been an hour or so, and the employees contended to leave, but Kalliope sat with her back to the wall and Reina was still squatted over Aglaia.

"Could you," Aglaia finally spoke, "go get me a long black ribbon?"

The rest of that night, the boss stayed and watched as the girls together assembled a dress of black lace and ribbon that, for starters, certainly did not belong in the reject rack.

Reina was less expressively thankful then she felt, but Aglaia was paying too much attention to the pulsing callouses on her fingers to care.

Mrs. Kaeda, the store manager who had witnessed the affair, checked out Reina (long after the store's hours) and stopped Aglaia with her mother before they could leave.

"I saw what you were doing there. I've never seen anything like it."

A moment of uncomprehendingly silence passed.

"You know the mall has a charisma agency."

Aglaia blankly nodded.

"They could use a girl like you."

Again, Aglaia blankly nodded.

Her face reddened as realization hit her.

_And so it began._

* * *

**Back At The Atsuko Townhouse**

**The First Door on the Right**

* * *

Aphrodite had become like a sort of diary to Aglaia.

"I'm going to be charisma agent," Aglaia announced gleefully as she lie on her bed.

"'Charisma agent'? That sounds to me like a prostitute," the ghostly visage of Aphrodite decided.

"No," Aglaia sat up. "It's kind of like. . ." She took a moment to think. "Like a fashion expert." She blushed as she thought about it. "A consultant. People will ask me what to wear."

"You certainly think often of clothing," Aphrodite sneered as she looked at the familiar posters on the walls. "But what man cares more for clothing than what is beneath?"

Aglaia blushed again and reprimanded her second soul.

"It is the truth. And I think that the time has come for me to make my debut!"

But the mortal scowled.

"The world has waited long enough," the otherworldly counterpart decided.

"What do you have in mind?" Reluctance ran off her voice like sweat.

* * *

After a battle to rival Marathon, Aphrodite convinced Aglaia that her plan for full proof.

And for that matter, totally necessary.

"Hey, Mom?" The florid Aglaia asked as she peeked around her parents' bedroom door.

"Yes?" Kalliope lowered her copy of _Entertainment Weekly._

"I was wondering. . . could I try on some makeup?"

Kalliope's face lit up like a teen girl with Jonas Brothers tickets.

"Ooh, I thought you'd never ask!!"

* * *

**Domino City Monorail**

**Train Car 16-12**

**(en route to the Kaido-Ji district)**

**March 25th, 2009**

**6:25 P.M.**

* * *

The sun was setting on the school day after.

Aglaia's face felt painted up yet totally nude every moment at school.

The boys gave her all types of grief (Duke's form, notably, was a well placed flirtation), but Teá insisted that Aglaia(whose real blush was inexplicably deepened by false blush) looked adorable.

Riding the metro on her way to Teá's suburban home(for a much needed sleep over), Aglaia had time to think over the unconventional day's most startling anomaly-- and that was Seto Kaiba.

At school for once, he had _looked directly at her_.

This might not seem so strange for some people, but it was _Seto Kaiba_.

The _Seto Kaiba_ who may or may not have meant to break her brother's kneecaps, and the _Seto Kaiba _whose nose she wiped and whose sleeping face mimicked a statue.

Sometimes, as Aglaia sat with her friends, she had the insoluble feeling that he was looking at her (as his bore a presence that seemed to gravitate the room), but when she subtly turned to "get out her book", she found him innocently reading his. (As innocently as a board room shark can, mind you.)

But that day, she turned and saw him looking straight at her from the stairwell, unabashedly, like a calculator evaluating some complex equation.

For a moment, they shared eye content.

Funny; Aglaia almost thought he looked surprised.

But as by-passer interrupted her view of him, he seemed to disappear in a school of unaware student-fishes.

_"Seems like an admirer," _Aphrodite speculated, but Aglaia shamelessly ignored her. (For she wouldn't be taking the reality of spirit whose faith laid in Olympus.)

Back on the metro from her mind, Aglaia realized that she was staring at a pair of purple boots, those of the passenger across from her.

Big blonde hair, glossed lips, waist of a model, bust of a queen, and _a pair of purple boots_.

Aglaia soon found herself staring directly at the unknowing Mai Valentine.

"What are you looking at, kid?" she spoke in a husky voice, running with womanhood.

"No-- nothing . . ." Aglaia turned her face to the ground.

A lot of things began that day.

* * *

_Okay, so here's the deal. Next chapter is the climax! 3 (at least, for this arc-let) What you've all been waiting for. It will probably bubble over into two-part installment, and after that bout of plot, I'm finally ready and raring to go! I'm so excited. X)_

_For those who've been loyal, here's the situation: this, as I've previously stated, is the first arc-let. I'll call it that so as not to make it seem longer than it is-- I mean was._

_This story in its entirety will probably encompass four or five arc-lets, the following(with ambiguous names as not to spoil anything):_

_The Spell Bound Arc(this one), The Rocket Woman Arc(fashion-wrought and plot-i-licious), Armageddon Arc(You guessed it! CARD GAMES! Zigfried VS Seto. You knew it was coming), Paradise Tossed Arc(super-special-awesome CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! Now with canon pairings and extra Kaiba), and the final installment, the East of Sweden Arc(in all of its conclusive glory)._

_Seems so far off, doesn't it? But no, it'll be over faster than you can say all of the words in the English language. (Probably some time before Christmas) Fluff is imminent!_


	17. Dance

**It's the final countdown! :D**

**LISTEN THOUGH! I've made some alterations to the very end of chapter 15 so that this chapter makes more sense. You can read it. . or don't.**

**Oh, and guess what? It's BAKURA TIME! XD x 48475!!!**

* * *

Long night.

After arriving Aglaia arrived at Teá's lovely suburban home, Teá began the comically pathetic task of teaching Aglaia how to dance.

All night the more graceful of the two blasted all of the must-have CDs and tried her hardest to teach her movement-retarded friend some decent moves.

Around 11:00 or so, they decided to call it a night.

As Teá took her turn in the shower, Aglaia dried her hair on her temporary futon. The moon was full that night and Teá's large bedroom window gave her a full view.

(A sparrow came and perched on the window sill.)

Holding the ring on her finger up, she softly called, "Aphrodite" and the impossible visage began to materialize.

"I've been watching you," she cooed in a taunting voice, "and I've decided something."

"What?"

"You'll never find a man to marry you if you can only move so rigidly!"

Upon hearing this, Aglaia sat up even more rigidly.

"You must be confident, agile!" Aphrodite swished around the room, strutting the apparent ideal. "That is, if you ever want to fall in love!"

Aglaia blinked stupidly and cocked her head to the side. "But what if I don't?"

Aphrodite gasped theatrically and pointed her transparent finger at Aglaia's nose. "Don't say something so stupid! If you do not want love, then what else in the world matters?!"

Aglaia pulled her legs into her chest. "I'm not saying that I don't want love. . . I love my family and my friends. . . but I don't need to fall in love. I really want to--"

"To what?!" Aphrodite demanded.

"To be a designer. I really do," she wished childishly.

"Of your special robes?" Aphrodite sneered.

Aglaia nodded, feeling foolish. Aphrodite stared out the window(as two more sparrows gathered on the ledge).

"If you truly wanted to become a designer of robes, then just pray to the Fates! And allow me to guide the rest of your life."

"Pray. . to the Fates?" Aglaia thought of how she would be attending church the morning after next. Regardless of the goddess living on her finger(and simultaneously in her mind), Aglaia still felt as she always had, that there was God watching over her.

"Yes! Even if Olympus has fallen, surely the Fates still exist! If not, then life could no longer continue."

"But I can't."

"You _can't_?"

"No. I just can't." Studying the pattern on her futon, Aglaia then looked up to see Aphrodite glowering at her.

The immortal promptly humph-ed.

"Fine, then." Fading out, Aphrodite last said, "Don't listen to me."

Again alone, Aglaia could only hear Teá's shower running. Folding her hands together, Aglaia bent down and closed her eyes.

"Um. . . whoever is there, please listen to me. If it's You, God, please give me a sign. And if it's somebody else. . . please don't ignore me. I. . . I really, really want have my dream come true. Please listen to me. In--" She was about to recite whose name she prayed in, but didn't know who to designate. "In-- in-- please listen to me. Amen."

* * *

The morning after was warm and windy, but Teá didn't know it, as she watched the sunrise from her bedroom window. She didn't use to have so much time like this.

Teá woke up insanely early from a routine nightmare (of watching the Pharaoh walk into the light but never being able to catch him) and dressed as slowly as she could.

Now she had time to think. Think about how dull her life had become, think about the one she missed.

She recalled Aglaia blushing and telling her about how Ryou (who had returned only a few days before from his home with his father in England) and the most troubling thoughts came to her.

Was she almost a little jealous? Teá, who had always sought romance but settled for friendship (with him. . .), wondered why it was that after only having returned for two days, Bakura asked Aglaia to the dance.

He was always such a recluse and that he asked out a girl he barely knew simply didn't add up.

Picking up the single picture Teá had of Ryou off her shelve (including the rest of the bunch), she caressed the picture and sighed. She always knew that there were things he didn't tell any of them, and she always wanted to "make it all better" in her way.

If he was finally reaching out, that was good, right?

As Teá pined and Aglaia slept, Aphrodite watched the woken brunette closely.

* * *

As a sort of re-initiation into the group, Joey, Tristan, Yugi, and Duke took Bakura to see Crows Zero, the new must-see Shun Ogori film.

"So, what was it like in England, Bakura?" Yugi once again wrangled Bakura back into the conversation. He was always a little quiet, but this was getting ridiculous.

"Cold," the pale boy muttered. The afternoon was not going as planned.

Abruptly, as the crew turned a street corner, Ryou looked out across the road and tinted nearly green. Instead of crossing, he pardoned himself and ran down the road to the nearest rest room.

"What's with him?" Joey asked once Ryou was gone.

"I don't know," Tristan answered, as he shook his head. "He's been like that since he went over to England. You figure his dad did something?"

"No," Duke decided. "I've met his dad, and he's too involved in his work to bother with him."

"What do you think, Yug?" Joey questioned, but Yugi was too preoccupied trying to see what frightened Bakura.

"What?"

"Nevermind."

"But you know, he asked Aglaia out," Duke reported.

"I'll never understand that kid," Joey announced.

"Hey, if he's branching out, that's fine." Tristan nodded to himself. "Maybe she can work with him to get over. . whatever it is."

And it seemed that everyone's mouth firmed into a grimace.

* * *

Aglaia's first day at work felt something like lying on a bed of needles.

After leaving Teá's house, she went for her two hour shift in the charisma agency center at the Domino City Mall.

It was a glass box in the center of the west wing full of bright colors, pretty girls, needy girls, and round furniture. Aglaia was led by the agency's secretary to the center, behind silver, paper walls, where the agency's finest stitched, paired, and coordinated the best outfits for the best wearers.

All heads turned to the "new girl" and Aglaia could feel her face illuminate.

A queen with Versace heels, deliberately curled black hair, and a mouth full of gum stood and sized up Aglaia as the others sat.

"So you're the newbie?" she supposed as she smacked.

After a moment, Aglaia nodded stupidly, blushing deeper. "A-- Aglaia Atsuko," she stated.

"Well, Aglaia Atsuko, I'm Michiko, and I hope you're a fast learner. This is a dog-eat-dog business and unless you take this opportunity, you'll be demoted to repairs. Understand?"

"Y--Yes."

"There's no room for stupid mistakes. Every stitch is vital."

"Yes."

"Is that all you can say?"

"Y-- no."

"Huh-- " Michiko blew a bubble. "Wow. Well, Aglaia Atsuko, come here and work on this. This is your first order. You can start off back here fixing up the orders. You work your way up to designing. Here are the proportions."

Aglaia took the paper and read over it.

"Um-- who wrote this?"

"I did," Michiko barked. "Why?"

"Well, it says a china silk."

"So?"

"And a half loop stitch at the neckline."

"_So_?" Michiko insisted. Everyone in the room continued staring.

"Well, won't that pucker?"

Silence. . .

"Gimme that," Michiko snapped as she took the paper and went to the back to review it, as girls muffled their giggles.

* * *

The afternoon was approaching, and Aglaia found the rest of the charisma agency's "back-room girls" to be agreeable.

As she left to prepare for the dance, Hatsuka, the agency's secretary, stopped her.

"Aglaia, I've seen what you do. You're different, you know."

Aglaia didn't know how to take it.

"Anyway, take this." Hatsuka handed Aglaia a flyer. "It's for the Strut Youth competition. It's going to be held in Tokyo over Golden Week for amateur designers. A feature in Fruits magazine if the prize, and a guaranteed ride to the top from there." Hatsuka handed Aglaia the paper.

Like a ghost, Aglaia floated out of the store on shuffling feet.

When she reached the bus stop, she screamed.

_"Self control,"_ Aphrodite hissed.

And Aglaia blushed again.

* * *

As Teá and Aglaia entered the seizure-friendly rented hotel ballroom, they waited at the door a moment as not to be blinded and deafened by the flashing light and pumping music.

Aglaia's eyes sought out Ryou (like a little white flower on the wall, with the boys hanging awkwardly around him) and approached with her friend.

Joey, Tristan, Yugi, and Duke looked relieved to see the girls, but Bakura's expression was unreadable.

Immediately, Aglaia and Ryou fell behind the conversation's frontier and eventually the white-haired boy motioned towards the open balcony washed over in moonlight.

The two made their way out and walked along the hotel's fourth story ridge in silence until they found an agreeably isolated spot.

Examining the ledge, Aglaia quietly spoke, "I kind of want to sit down. . . but I'm afraid I might fall."

Bakura rubbed the back of his head and smiled softly. "Yeah, I'm the same way." He cleared his throat and looked at the floor. "I'm clumsy that way. . ."

Aglaia nodded and after several minutes of trying to find something to look at, she watched Bakura slide to a sit with his back on the stone ledge. She joined him.

Once her fingers became boring to twiddle, Aglaia broke the uncomfortable silence with, "So-- so tell me about you-- you, please."

After a pause, Ryou asked, "What do you want to know?"

Then, another pause. "Why you're being so quiet."

. . . "I'm a quiet person, I guess."

"But not this quiet."

"How do you know?"

"Tristan told me so."

"Is that what he whispered to you earlier?" he asked in his admittedly adorable accent.

Aglaia giggled a bit. "Yeah. . ."

But Bakura didn't seem to find it funny, as his grimace just firmed.

The steel silence seemed unbreakable.

"Why did you ask me out, Bakura?" It was a bold question, uncharacteristic of Aglaia, and she immediately began to blush.

"I don't know," Ryou said as he examined his palms. "I guess I just wanted--"

"A-- date?"

"No."

The silence went undented.

"I didn't--"

"Want-- to be alone?"

"Yeah," he smiled sheepishly and it remained as an apparition for a while longer.

Their silence echoed around the dance's hustle (seemingly in the far distance) until Aglaia poked a hole in it like a metal balloon.

"You're more brave than I am, Bakura. . . . but. . . you don't really like me this way, do--" She almost stuttered, but not quite. "--do you?"

"What way?"

Aglaia gestured to her dress and then to the ballroom.

"I like you," he assured. "But-- no."

"I. . . I understand."

"You do?"

"You- you're a person like me. . . we're both quiet people."

In agreement, the two became quiet.

"I have nightmares a lot," Ryou randomly confessed.

". . . what?"

"I've been having a lot of nightmares. Ever since I left. I just wanted someone to know."

". . . you're lonely, aren't you, Bakura?"

No one answered her.

Abruptly, Aglaia stood, and stood taller than she had before. Taller, broader, prouder-- more "agile".

The body of Aglaia took off her square, reflecting glasses and cracked them in her hands.

"What are you--" Bakura tried, but the curious girl took him by the wrist and ran with him into the screaming music before he could resist.

Once submerged in the crowded dance floor, this tall standing woman spun around and looked the wriggling Ryou square in the eyes and before he could comprehend the violet and mocha shades, he fell (or rather, was pushed) into the sea of rampaging rhythms and could only think about the music.

In the middle of the dance floor, a foot-tapping butterfly called Teá was wedged in between a few others divas when in came a white-haired boy who fell in step like a rag doll.

At first, she didn't believe that it was Bakura (clunky, klutzy Bakura) but his big brown eyes were so sewn into hers that she couldn't escape the realization.

And a few more, as well.

* * *

"Duke!" Yugi called out to his friend who was hidden in crowd of admirers.

"What is it, Yugi?"

"It's Joey. He and Tristan went to the the Lucky-Mart, but--"

Duke noticed Yugi trembling.

"What's the matter, Yugi?"

"It was Mai. Mai was there."

"What? Mai Valentine?"

"Yeah-- and now Joey's gone."

* * *

_[Once I was watching a movie with a once-friend. Just as it became epic, she threw her hand in front of my face and shouted "CLIMAX!". Allow me to do that to you now. The next chapter will be Mailicious and plot-terrific and will henceforth conclude the Spellbound Arc, the arc with the least amount of Kaiba, guaranteed.]_

_[Now review! It's only fair. If you've spent time reading it this far you at least bother to review.]_


	18. Smoke

**_DISCLAIMER. That's all. And, thanky-thanks to my precious Beta-reader MythCreatorWriter, who I've painfully neglected to credit. Thank you eternally for putting up with my crap! And please forgive the Shadow Games references in this chapter! :D_**

* * *

Aphrodite's plan was not going as she had hoped.

At first, Teá and Ryou were entranced (all according to plan), dancing like a hip-hop ballerina with a rhythmic ghost. One night of passion could equal a lifetime of attachment, Aphrodite knew, if played correctly.

But then the small one (Yuji? Yugi?) threw open the moment with some trivial news, breaking the bond. Apparently some friend got in a fight with some other friend, too boring for Aphrodite.

She relinquished her hold.

"What is it, you guys?" Aglaia asked as she ran towards her friends, leaving the dance with unprecedented panic.

"No time! Just come on!" Teá yelled over the music. They left the hotel to find Tristan driving in on his motorcycle.

"Have you found him?" Duke asked Tristan from the sidewalk, as the latter removed his helmet, shaking off his sweat.

"No, but I know they're down at the Region abandoned factory. I've gotta get over there. You guys catch up!" He immediately replaced his helmet and sped off, in disregard to the poor sap trying to cross the street that he nearly flattened.

Duke pulled out his cell phone as Ryou and Yugi waved their arms and shouted in an attempt to flag down cabs.

"Teá! What's going on?!" Aglaia grabbed her friend's arm, terrified.

"It's Joey," Teá said as she took Aglaia's wrist (partly to return feeling to her arm). "Mai's come back into town and got mixed up with some bad guys. Joey and Tristan saw them and now we don't know where he is! They just-- they just hit up Tristan and ran off with Joey following. We've gotta go find them."

"What do you mean by 'some bad guys'?"

"The Duelist Underground," Duke answered as he flipped his phone shut. "It's just as I thought. They're having a meet-up tonight. They're the guys who trade stolen cards. I don't know a lot about them, but I know that they'll do just about anything to get what they want. If they were trying to get the Harpy Lady from Mai-- which is what it seems like-- and Joey is getting in their way--"

A taxi cab finally stopped.

"We've gotta get there quick," Yugi concluded.

* * *

As she watched her friends, squeezed into a tight taxi, Aglaia realized their bravery. They seemed to have experience with such situations. The newbie tried not to shake.

Of course, she failed, but Teá's hand rested on her knee assured her that there was no need to worry.

* * *

The abandoned Region factory was a branch off of Kaiba Corp. from when it was a weapons supplier. The building was squat and grey with darkened windows and a build that seemed to wrap out in all directions of night.

Unloading from the taxi cab, the five slipped through the torn chain link fence and passed the knocked out bodies of two bloodied guards (Tristan had already been there, obviously).

Up in the building, on the seventh floor, distorted shadows and vaguely aggressive shouts revealed their destination.

Clad in prom-wear, they hurried through the dank surroundings. They reached the locked door on the seventh floor all too soon.

Duke began to kick it just above the lock in hopes of shattering the door's mechanism as the others watched.

Then something seemed to prick Aglaia in the back of the neck.

_"I have a feeling," _Aphrodite whispered, more to herself than to Aglaia.

"A feeling of what?" Aglaia asked aloud, and the rest turned to her, for she had broken their tense silence.

_"Come," _Aphrodite demanded, and as though pulled by a leash, Aglaia ran down the hallway towards the next flight of stairs.

Teá called after her, but at the same time, Duke broke the door open to reveal Joey and Tristan, shoulder to shoulder and cornered.

Before they could barge in heroically, Ryou, Teá, Yugi, and Duke were pulled in and arm locked by burly, greasy henchmen.

"It's nice to see you again, Yugi," growled the smug man sitting in the far corner. He was rocking back on his chair with legs on a table and looked the greasiest of them in his ponytail mullet.

Yugi paid no mind and called out to Tristan and Joey.

"Listen to me, you little shit!" the obvious boss in his leather jacket stood and shouted.

The man holding Yugi hit him upside the head, in accordance with his boss's rage.

"I've been doing a lot since we last met." He stood up and his height was menacing. "Not playing with yo-yos anymore."

"Who is this guy, Yugi?" Duke snarled, eyes not leaving the enemy.

"It's Hirutani. He used to be in a gang with Joey and Tristan a long time ago. Then after they separated he forced Joey to join him again. He nearly killed us both," recounted Yugi.

"Why, Yugi, you make me sound like such a bad guy. I've really gotten myself together, you know." Hirutani made long strides towards Yugi. Joey and Tristan tried to stand and stop him, but they were pushed down by the thugs around them.

"Here I was about to make the steal of the century. This Mai chick was hard to convince, but once she thought I had some rare cards, she came running. Desperate to make a comeback, I guess."

Joey growled in his squat position.

"And here I was, just expecting to get my hands on the Harpy Lady. I never thought I'd meet you guys. But this is just perfect!"

"What're you gonna do, dirt bag!?" Joey spat after he literally spat some blood.

"Simple, really." He lowered his head to Yugi's level menacingly. "I wanna play a game."

* * *

"Where are we going?" Aglaia asked aloud as she ran up the stone stairs.

She really felt like a real psycho when Aphrodite didn't answer.

Instead, her independently acting hand pushed open the last door she reached at the top of her flight of stairs, opening to the roof. In front of the door stood a man with an oily shaven head.

"Hey, what are you--"

"Out of my way, filth!" Aglaia involuntarily bellowed. Her body tried to push past him, but he grabbed her by the collar.

"You're not going anywhere. Just who are you!?" he snarled as he held her up off the ground.

Before she could spout another demand, the man was painfully knocked aside by something shiny.

"Thanks kid," spoke a blonde femme fatale holding the a metal suitcase (presumably containing trading cards). "I'd been meaning to do that." She strutted back toward the roof's ledge, held by a chain link fence. "Now, to find a way out of here. . ."

"You-- you're Mai," stuttered Aglaia.

"No joke," she scoffed as she continued to look for breaks in the fence.

"If-- you're gonna leave, why not go this way?" Weakly, she pointed to the door.

"And pass those greasy slobs again? No thanks, hun, you can try that." Mai shook her head reproachfully.

"Well-- why are you running? Your friends came here to get you-- to save you." As inexperienced as she was in friendship, Aglaia tried to sound convincing.

Mai finally turned around to contemplate Aglaia, openly staring her down.

"You're one of them, aren't you?" the blonde stated blankly as she folded her arms.

"One of who?"

"One of those sugar-sweet besties. Friends to the end, right? FYI, this is the real world! I've got no time for things like that. I've grown up."

"But you are our friend," Aglaia stated, though she had no idea why she included herself.

"Is that so?" she scoffed.

". . . yes. It is. . . Why-- why are you. . ."

"Why am I what?" she snapped like a pissed poodle.

"Why are you running away?"

"I'm not running," the duelist insisted as she finally stopped rattling the fence, thinking for a moment. "Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm Aglaia."

"Well, Aglaia, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm getting out of here. I'm not interested in finding friendship."

"Then what are you trying to find?"

The wind whistled in response.

"I think I know," Aglaia whispered.

"Oh yeah?" snapped Mai. "And what's that?"

"What everyone else is looking for." Aglaia shifted her weight, not liking to feel preachy. "It's happiness, right?"

"I guess you could call it that."

Mai sat down on the cement ledge and an uncertain silence washed over them.

She gave a pointed nod to the empty spot next to her. "Just don't give me any friendship speeches, okay?"

* * *

Yugi sat down in the straight backed chair, realizing that Hirutani had at least gotten a lot more organized in his gang methods.

Held to the wall were his friends, bound at the wrists, and waiting to see what Hirutani had in store.

"This game is a favorite of mine. The rules are simple: taking turns, we draw cards from this deck of Tarot cards. Whoever gets Death," he smirked as he shuffled, "gets to try Fate with a little round of Russian Roulette. Sound fair?"

Yugi spoke through clenched teeth. "Let's just do this!"

"Anxious to die?"

"I'm ready to defeat you," the small boy spoke with familiar determination.

"Okay. But I've gotta warn you, I play to win."

* * *

Sitting down reluctantly, Aglaia watched Mai watching her. The blonde pulled a box of cigarettes from her jacket pocket and a light from her cleavage.

"So it's Aglaia, right?" she asked after she lit up and blew her first puff.

The younger girl nodded.

"You're in high school with the others?"

"That's right," she assured.

"I bet you guys are the best of friends, right? You have lots of fun?" The drunken tone to Mai's voice was whimsically sarcastic.

Again, she nodded, not sure where this was leading.

"Well. I'm glad to hear that nothing's changed."

"What's the matter with that?"

"Nothing."

Before Aglaia could interrupt her pause, Mai spoke again.

"That's just the problem. When that rainbow-bright world of there's meets reality, I'm not gonna be around to watch it fall apart."

"So. . . you're afraid?"

"I'm not afraid of anything," Mai assured indignantly.

"Then what are you running from?"

The blonde blew out a puff of smoke and Aglaia coughed as the wind carried it to her face.

"I guess nothing at all."

Aglaia watched Mai watching her cigarette smolder.

"They really, really care about you, you know."

Mai laughed an old woman's laugh.

"I bet you fit right in with them, don't you?"

Shuffling in discomfort, Aglaia tried to hold back her breath and her inhibitions at the same time.

"Well. It's been nice talking to you, Aglaia, but I gotta find a way out of here." Throwing her cigarette to the ground and smashing it with her heel, Mai proceeded to search for a break in the chain links.

"Why?"

"Why? Because there's at least ten thugs down there who want my Harpy Lady, and if I don't get out of here soon, they'll get tired of pounding Tristan and Joey and come up for me."

Realization hit Aglaia, though it should have been obvious.

"Our friends are in trouble!" she shouted.

"_Your_ friends are in trouble, kid."

* * *

"Well, Yugi, looks like you're not quite as game-savvy as you used to be," Hirutani chuckled as Yugi put the barrel of the gun to his temple, wrist shaking.

"Yugi, don't! We'll find some other way out of this!" Teá shouted. The others looked on in horror.

He pulled the trigger.

A click sounded, and nothing else.

"You got lucky this time, Mutou," Hirutani grimaced as he reshuffled his deck. Hirutani gave the man behind him a cutting glare. He could only shrug.

Joey, fighting his reddening vision, perceived this subtle gesture and came to a conclusion.

Hirutani was cheating.

* * *

Never before had Aglaia been so angry. Passion rose up in her, and she didn't quite know what to do with it.

"What-- how can you say that?!" Aglaia couldn't remember yelling so loudly.

"I told you! I'm interested in these little friends of yours. I can't be. So leave me alone and go save them, if they're so damn important!"

A blaze passed through Aglaia's eyes and she stood up out of her slump. She rose, it seemed, and inexplicably changed. Mai wondered if she was going to grow claws.

"Stupid woman! How can you be so selfish?"

The strange girl grabbed Mai by the collar.

"If you were any type of woman then you would come and help save the man you love!"

At this, Mai's eyes blew out of their sockets. Rage was contagious.

"Shut up! You don't know anything! I don't love anyone!"

With this, the girl smacked Mai across her cheek, putting her into shock.

"Stupid pagan! Don't you think that I could tell such a thing?! It's my job!"

At this point, Mai had no idea what the hell she was talking about.

"If you want to be a coward, then go ahead. But remember this! When your youth has passed you'll regret not having spent it doing something with yourself! So get over your stupid fears! This is your life! You don't deserve it if you don't take it!"

And with that, a self proclaimed love goddess ran down the cement stairs to do God knows what.

* * *

"Hirutani!" Joey shouted with all of his strength as Yugi drew his next card of their second round. "I see what you're doing!!"

"What is it now, Joey?" Hirutani frowned impatiently, obviously not expecting the game to last so long.

"You know damn well, you asshole! You're cheating!" Joey stood from his forced crouch.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" He barked and stood, ready to bite.

"I saw it! When you shuffled it, I saw you reach into your sleeve! And I bet you loaded up the gun with more than one shot, too! You're still the same sneaky bastard as always! Yugi never had a chance!"

"In case you haven't noticed you little punk, none of you have a chance!" He picked up the gun to prove it. "I'll get my revenge one way or another!" Hirutani pointed the gun at Joey, and just as he shot, a lot of confusion took place.

One, Yugi leapt across the table and managed to tackle Hirutani, letting the bullet miss-hit the thug standing behind Joey in the ribs.

At the same time, Aglaia (looking remarkably un-Aglaia-like) burst through the already broken door and shouted something about stopping in the name of Zeus, as she promptly kneed the guy closest to the door in the crotch, allowing him to fall to the floor, and kicking him in the face.

Duke took this opportunity to roundhouse kick his guard in the face, and Ryou pulled apart his bindings (which he had been working on with his cufflink). He then went to untying Teá. Tristan, on the other hand, took one guard into a choke hold with his bound arms.

Joey crawled across the floor in the confusion to the pile of Hirutani and Yugi.

"You little bastard!" Hirutani shouted as he lifted Yugi by his neck and held him to the wall beside them. "I've had enough of this!"

He popped a switchblade out of his pocket, but before he could strike, Joey threw his fists down on it, cutting his ropes apart and knocking the knife away. With the most strength he could muster, he punched Hirutani upward on his nose, loudly breaking the cartilage and bone above it.

Hirutani scrambled for the knife as Joey fell nearly limp for lack of strength on the floor, coughing up blood and panting for his life.

Yugi frantically searched the walls for something blunt and found a fire extinguisher. With all the strength he could muster, he smashed Hirutani over the head with it, causing him to pass out.

All the while, Aphordite used the body of Aglaia to lift up the poker table that had fallen over and smash two men down with it, kicking other men on the floor for good measure. Ryou untied Tristan and Duke, who did the most in the ways of ass-kicking.

The two looked to Teá, who had a scarily irate henchmen reaching over her, but she performed a double pirouette, and on the second turn, kicked the man in the chest, cracking loudly his ribs.

All those in the room not already knocked out took a moment to gape at this, but the chaos quickly resumed as the cleverer of them took the free punch while they could.

With a final punch on Duke's part, the friends watched as the last twitching henchmen fell to the floor.

"We did it!" Teá smiled, near tears, as she had not faced such trauma in a long time.

As they all examined their wounds and recollected, a clicking sounded.

"That's it!" Hirutani shouted hysterically as he stood in the doorway that he had been kicked towards, cocked gun at the ready. He shook with rage and one really couldn't tell who was aiming at. "I'm wasting all of you little shits right now!"

He was then painfully knocked aside by something shiny.

"Hey guys," spoke the femme fatale with the suitcase. "Long time, no see."

* * *

**_[If you don't review, the terrorists win.]_**


	19. Dream

**Isn't it redundant by now? Geez, I'm far to consumed with love for Maggot Boy to give a crap. :D :D :D :D :D**

* * *

No one asked any questions about how or why Aglaia suddenly acquired massive kick-ass skills and no one asked why they suddenly disappeared as Duke called for his limousine to pick them up.

Aglaia stood away cleaning her glasses as Mai and the rest reacquainted themselves. It was awkward at first, but improving.

While the rest would return to Duke's mansion to be treated without having to go to the hospital (and thereby arousing the suspicion that might just be Mai's third strike), Aglaia was dropped off home.

Hiding blood stains on a red dress was harder than she would have imagined.

"Honey, what is that?"

"Um-- it's-- that's punch."

* * *

Sunday morning, Aglaia dressed in a tunic and dress pants.

Church.

Due to the relative minority that Christians made in Japan, to find a Greek Orthodox Church in Domino would have been impossible; instead, Kalliope settled for Roman Catholicism.

Once the Atsukos arrived that early morning(wrinkled and yawning as they were), they found the congregation just as they, shivering in the morning cold and shifting in their pews.

One could derive from his accent that the preacher was American, and while he gave his sermon and repeated the prayers that Aglaia knew would repeated, she took care to count the lights overheard three times, thereby missing the signals to stand, kneel, and repeat in unison.

Never had Aglaia been a doubtful girl (nor specifically faithful), but it was particularly troubling to look up at the huge wooden cross hung over them and not think about the little ring she had left in her jewelry box. She played all types of games with her glasses as not to look at it.

After the service, as the congregation slowly idled downstairs for refreshments, Kalliope ran around, introducing and making friends while Kenichi and Hiroto ghosted along behind her.

Meanwhile, Aglaia made her way into the abandoned confessions room, unsure of what she meant.

Opening the door to the candle lit room and closing it reluctantly, she took a seat on the wooden bench on the wall.

She began to knock on the slanted wood that led to the room over, but a voice stopped her.

"Who is it?" an obviously old woman answered, seeming to not expect anyone.

"Um-- excuse me m'am--" Aglaia began, but cleared her throat as to not give herself away. "I-- I was hoping you could answer some questions for me."

"Well, are you new to the faith?"

"Um-- no."

"Well, what is it you'd like to ask?"

Having not thought it over, Aglaia shuffled her fingers and paused.

"Are you still there?"

"Yes, m'am."

"Well what is it, then?"

"How do I even know there's a god?"

"Eh-- excuse me?"

"Well, how do you know?"

"I don't know."

"Then why are we even here?" The floodgates of doubt, wrought of years of sitting idly in pews, burst open.

"It's out of faith. God asks for faith. If His existence was outright, well, that wouldn't be faith."

"Okay, but then, if God loves us, why do good things happen to bad people?"

"Well-- um. Well, it's part of His plan."

"His plan?"

"Yes. Everything is part of His plan."

"Even Adam and Eve eating the fruit?"

"What?"

"When He created earth, and told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit, but they did, was that part of His plan, too?"

"Um-- I don't know. It might have been."

"And does He plan for people to go to Hell?"

"Well-- you see--"

"And in any case, how come this religion is right, and no one else's? How come-- how come there are so many types of Christianity if it's the truth? Which one is right?"

"Listen," she said as she proceeded to make an annoyed grunt-sigh sound with her nose, "I'm not God. I don't have all of the answers. If you're having doubts, reading Scriptures is what I recommend--"

But Aglaia was already down the hall she ran out of the wooden door (not caring to close it), down the isolated hall, and into the bustling lobby room. Hiroto and Kenichi stood offishly in the corner.

With a subtle motion of his shoulder, Hiroto indicated the door. Aglaia stood perplexed for a moment and then nodded.

The three waited quietly in the car for Kalliope to come.

Kenichi, however, noticed Aglaia (as her shaken expression was a dead give-away) and asked sarcastically, "Have fun?"

Blankly, Aglaia nodded.

* * *

The next few weeks through April went relatively peacefully.

Mai and the rest renewed their friendship (to some extent). Joey welcomed her in with open arms, as well as Teá and Yugi; however, the others were less warm in their welcome.

Teá had been spending a lot of time with Ryou, it seemed, as well. (When Aglaia mentioned this to Aphrodite, she wondered why she chuckled.)

Aglaia rose quickly in precedence at the charisma agency, which consumed to most of her time and efforts. A lot of the time she would forget that she was working, so deeply love with her work.

The girl worked her way up the promotional ladder to a full charisma agent, actively shopping with and advising the "patients". One might call it moving up, and as she did, so did her hopes.

* * *

Aya took a long sip of oolong tea and rested her chin on her folded hands. She had been emailing Aglaia and found herself bombarded with doubts and bitterness towards her church and religion.

Herself, Aya had never been a fan of the church (or any organized religious institution). But was not the discussion she sought to have with a girl whose jewelry is possessed.

* * *

Ryou rolled onto his side, sick of that feeling. The feeling of having to throw up but then being unable to, the feeling of excruciating exhaustion coupled with the crippling insomnia. He was going to lose his mind, if he already hadn't.

He thought that it would be all easy going after the Dark Spirit of the Millennium Ring left him, but it never really left him. He still dreamt about it every night, still saw it wherever he went.

Sometimes he dreamt about what would happen if his mother and sister ever met him. Those were his least favorite dreams.

But now he had trained himself to wake from nightmares before they consumed him. He soon found that if they didn't, the sleep deprivation would.

Now again he heard silence, the silence set over the street below.

"Are you up yet?"

Ryou looked to the door in shock.

"You're here?" he could only ask.

"Of course I am. I said I'd stay, didn't I?" Teá bumped the door open with her hip and brought in a tray of rice porridge with vegetables and steaming hot ginger shoga-yu. "I thought you might be hungry. You barely have any food here, I had to go down to the convenience store to get it."

Ryou blinked stupidly as she set the tray down on his bed and sat beside it.

He almost again said "you're still here", but thought better of it.

"Thank you," he said as he sat up took the shoga-yu to drink. He burst into a brighter smile before he sipped it and again said, "Thank you."

* * *

Finally, Golden Week. It happened so quickly.

On an overnight bus ride to Tokyo, Aglaia, Teá, Serenity, and Mai, as well as some girls from the charisma agency. The four friends spent a lot of time wandering and window-shopping (and when it came to bartering, Mai proved herself an asset).

It was like the prelude to a dream: glossy, glamorous Tokyo, and the girls had a chance to be a part of it.

The time came all too soon for Aglaia to present her designs to the judges. There were so many girls in the crowded, cement stadium, and so many of them were prettier than Aglaia.

Still, as Aglaia dressed Teá, Serenity, and Mai in their Greek-influenced fashions(of course), she couldn't help but feel a surge of confidence. Surely tonight something amazing will happen, she thought over and over.

The first designer was called onto the stage to present her work. Holding the microphone as the camera closed in on the models, she spoke with a stutter her fabrics, inspirations, and model names. The event was being televised.

Aglaia watched girl after girl shiver under the spotlight and her lip quivered as she did. Moments before her named was called, she kissed her ring, as Aphrodite took over.

Down the catwalk trounced a goddess in sandals and the music played. Glasses off.

"I am Atsuko Aglaia. Remember my name!" The voice boomed into and out of the speakers. A close-up was done on her half violet, half hazel eyes. Kalliope, watching back in Domino City, nearly fainted.

"The first model is the beautiful and graceful Teá Gardiner!" She swung her arm dramatically at the curtains as Teá came out on cue. "As you can see, she's wearing a purple halter dress with gold finish. . ."

And as Aphrodite proceeded to introduce her models and friends as grandly as she could (and oh, how she could), the judges scribbled constant notes at the end of the runway.

(And Serenity did as she promised by resisting to tug at the edges of her dress, while Mai winked at the crowd, a natural.)

* * *

Aglaia stared dumbly up at the score board.

"Aglaia! What is it? Did we win?!" Teá ran up behind Aglaia and grabbed onto her shoulder, as not to hit the wall. Serenity and Mai followed, finished with changing.

"No," she droned from the bottom of her stomach. "We got 67th place."

* * *

_Could I really have expected to win?_

Aglaia thought it over and over. The bus was leaving for an overnight trip back to Domino City and she stood with her design journal, which she had so slaved over.

On the verge of tears, she threw it down into the garbage can. What was she thinking?

In her rage, she kicked the can, carelessly knocking it into the street, and ran towards the parking lot where the bus waited.

Waiting to return to reality. She found it kind of symbolic.

* * *

Two hours later, on the road scarcely traveled, a limousine turned down it for a shortcut. It met with a trash can, and though that should have been knocked to the side, the pothole that it lied in threw the vehicle off balance, popping a sort of reversed wheelie. At the same time, the tire burst.

Inside, Maximillion Pegasus, miffed as he was, had his mood worsened. Now he would have to wait as his driver replaced the tire. Then, from his window, he saw a colorfully decorated book lying out in the street, there beside his door.

* * *

_**[Chainey Chainey Chainey. My thoughts are consumed by zombies as I write this. Haha, also I dare say I might try my hand at drawing the outfits I've so far imagined Aglaia in. Just for kicksies. As always, review or I'll eat your brains. Do you like Ryou and Teá together? I do. :D Thanks again, lovely Beta-baby Mythy! Oh, and guess who you can expect next chapter?! MOKUBA! In all of his chibi-glory. Oh, some Seto as well. X) But really, I apologize for the lack of involvement of this character I've claimed to base the fic on. He's coming, he really is. All in good time. That is, if you review! I know you're in there, you sick little monkeys. I see you.]**_

_**Ahem. That is all.**_


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